Everyone knows you shouldn’t overreact to Week 1 of the NFL season, but that knowledge is useless, because everyone still overreacts to Week 1 every year. The overreaction surrounding the Tennessee Titans is simple: Cam Ward is a talented quarterback that’s already being failed by everyone around him.
That’s certainly a drastic take to argue after just one game of football against a playoff team, but that appeared to be the case in Tennessee’s 20-12 loss to the Denver Broncos. Head coach Brian Callahan had some head-scratching time management decisions, and also admitted to not knowing the rule book like you’d expect a head coach to, and the Titans’ pass catchers put a lot of good balls on the ground.
Amongst all those moments, there was one play in particular that really summed up just how bad things were for the Titans in Week 1. The Tennessee offense was on it’s own five-yard line, and called a wide receiver screen. As Ward turned to the three receivers to his right, ready to execute an easy play, he double clutched as he saw the backs of three receivers.
The Titans were an unprepared team in Week 1
With all three wideouts firing off the line to block, the rookie quarterback had to throw the ball to the ground, as one of the receivers forgot they were supposed to be on the receiving end of the screen pass.
Cam Ward had to dirt a screen today because all three receivers in the area thought they were supposed to be blocking and nobody turned around for the ball pic.twitter.com/BFkIX3gVRM
— Brett Kollmann (@BrettKollmann) September 8, 2025
Moments like these are just indefensible. It’s one thing to just lose to a better team, but not being prepared to execute the basics of alignment and assignment are embarrassing. It’s even more embarrassing that those moments were coming from people other than the rookie quarterback.
This isn’t to make it seem like Ward played a flawless game; he definitely had rookie moments, like taking really bad sacks. However, he didn’t have the support from his team that creates an environment for a rookie quarterback to have those kind of growing pains. If that doesn’t change fast, the Titans will have another disastrous year on their hands.