AFC SouthBrian CallahanNFL

Tennessee Titans 2025 NFL Season Preview and Picks: Will Cam Ward Be Great Enough for Us To Remember the Titans?

Photo of Scott Kacsmar Scott Kacsmar11/08/2025 - 12:26 pm
(Photo by Stacy Revere/Getty Images)

As we move on to the AFC South teams, we start with the Tennessee Titans, who had the first pick in the 2025 NFL Draft and used it on Miami quarterback Cam Ward. It was a pretty obvious pick in a class that won’t be as deep as 2024, but some are already wondering if Ward is the least-hyped quarterback drafted No. 1 overall in a long time.

We know he’s not the least-hyped No. 1 pick ever because Travon Walker (2022 Jaguars) just happened three years ago in this division. We also can’t forget Eric Fisher, the ho-hum left tackle the 2013 Chiefs picked to start the Andy Reid era in what was a solid pick in a weak first round.

But we didn’t even purposely schedule the Titans for the Monday after Ward made his NFL preseason debut against Tampa Bay over the weekend. It just happened that way. But if you looked at the coverage of the Week 1 preseason, some think undrafted Tampa corner Shilo Sanders got more attention than Ward did in the same game.

That’s probably not true, but we do know that Shilo’s brother Shedeur Sanders stole so much of the draft headlines and discussion in April from Ward. Expectations were for Sanders to be a top-10 pick, the next quarterback to follow Ward off the board, but it didn’t turn out that way at all and he slid to the fifth round to Cleveland.

Sanders threw two touchdowns on Friday night, so he got to go first over his fellow rookies, and you could argue Jaxson Dart, the only other first-round quarterback this year besides Ward, was the most impressive of the group.

But Sanders’ story and built-in hype with his father Deion’s legacy and a Nike deal are part of the reason Ward continues to get a backseat in coverage of this draft class. The two quarterbacks are reportedly close friends, but as Ward kept saying to Sanders in their infamous video that went viral, he just wants to be known as a football player.

Before AI destroyed search engines like Google, I like that Ward’s got a Wikipedia mindset by bringing up “America football” as the title he wants to see after his name. But the elephant in the room is that a big reason why there’s a lack of attention for him and his team is that it’s the Tennessee Titans.

Sure, they had that nice little run in 2019-21 with Mike Vrabel, Derrick Henry, Ryan Tannehill, and before they foolishly traded A.J. Brown to the Eagles. But this has not been a high-profile franchise that’s had a lot of success in the 21st century. The Titans were just 3-14 last year and it was their third-straight year with double-digit losses.

That’s why Ward is going to have to have a transformative effect on the Titans and make us care about this franchise again. He doesn’t have to look any further for an example of this happening than Jayden Daniels in Washington last year, another team that had no real hype or expectations going into 2024 before reaching the NFC Championship Game, but we’ll get into that below.

Let’s recap where things went wrong in coach Brian Callahan’s 2024 rookie season, the opportunity for Ward in Year 1, and the best Titans bets for 2025.

Previously on TITANS: Too Much Mayonnaise, Not Enough Meat

Look, depending on which film you’ve studied from Will Levis on the internet, the title may be a misnomer. The young quarterback has some serious physical tools, but you never know when he’s going to prematurely misfire.

There was some hope that Brian Callahan could help mentor Levis and improve his game in Year 2 after the way he helped ease Jake Browning into the Cincinnati offense when Joe Burrow was injured in 2023. But it was clear in Week 1 that this was going to be a struggle. The Titans blew a 17-0 lead in Chicago and Levis threw a pick-six in the fourth quarter that sunk the team in a brutal loss to start the season.

You can say they never recovered from there. Levis was having turnovers and bad moments on a weekly basis that became instant memes on social media.

It’s a bad sign when your first win comes in a game where Levis was injured and replaced by Mason Rudolph, who doubled up Levis in QBR for the season (55.5 vs. 27.8). Even in the only win Levis started and finished in Houston, he still threw a pick-six, lost a fumble, and took eight sacks before closing okay.

The offense was simply better under Rudolph, but the Titans were also just outmatched against most of the schedule, losing big to playoff teams like Detroit (52-14), Washington (42-19), Buffalo (34-10), and Green Bay (30-14).

The Titans allowed the second-fewest yards on defense but the third-most points in the whole NFL last year. That’s what happens when you have way too many bad turnovers that put the defense in a bind with field position. But generally speaking, this defense still wasn’t playoff caliber even if the offense was better.

There’s a lot to fix in Tennessee, but a franchise quarterback does wonders with that if you can find one. With Levis already out for the year after undergoing shoulder surgery, it’s Cam Ward’s show now.

The Case for Cam Ward Winning Offensive Rookie of the Year

In a draft class that doesn’t feature many likely rookie starters at quarterback or new No. 1 wide receivers around the league, Cam Ward has a built-in advantage to win the AP NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year award as likely the only Week 1 starting quarterback. Ward’s odds (+300) rank No. 2 between Raiders running back Ashton Jeanty (+250) and Chargers running back Omarion Hampton (+850).

It’s certainly harder to win the award on a bad team as a quarterback than any other position. A running back can play great, and his team can still finish with a 5-11 record as the Giants did in 2018 when Saquon Barkley rushed for 1,307 yards to win the award, the last running back to win it.

But if a team finishes 5-12 in 2025, chances are their quarterback play isn’t very good, so that’s going to be hard to stand out statistically to have any shot. You can explain over 70% of the variation in team records in the NFL simply by how efficient the passing offense is.

So, even if you think the Titans are a longshot for the playoffs in 2025 as most do, Ward is no longshot to win OROY. In fact, his case is pretty clear cut as he just needs to make the Titans respectable on offense. He can aim much higher, and he doesn’t have to look far for inspiration. He can just look at the last two seasons, including one of his new division rivals.

In 2023, C.J. Stroud was the No. 2 pick in the draft by the Houston Texans. He had a big 2-year run at Ohio State with 85 touchdown passes as he played with a lot of NFL talent there. The Buckeyes led the nation in scoring in 2021 and were No. 2 in 2022. But the 2023 Texans were tied for the worst Super Bowl odds and the second-lowest win total (6.5) in the league.

Stroud started off by not throwing many interceptions as his selling point, but he soon started to make his receivers better, including a breakout year from Nico Collins. By season’s end, Stroud was in the playoffs and led the NFL in passing yards per game and lowest interception rate, a very unique combo. He easily won OROY.

In 2024, Jayden Daniels was the No. 2 pick in the draft by the Washington Commanders. A five-year college starter at Arizona State and LSU, he won the Heisman after an incredible 2023 at LSU where he threw for 3,812 yards, 40 touchdowns, averaged 11.7 yards per attempt, and he rushed for 1,134 yards and 10 more touchdowns as LSU led the nation in scoring (45.5 points per game).

Daniels did have a heck of a receiving duo in Malik Nabers (Giants) and Brian Thomas Jr. (Jaguars), and expectations weren’t high at all in Washington with rookie coach Dan Quinn and the return of offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury to the NFL. The Commanders were near the bottom in Super Bowl odds (+15000) and had a preseason win total of 6.5 wins.

All Daniels did was have the greatest rookie quarterback season in NFL history, lifting the most lifeless franchise in the salary-cap era to its finest season since 1991. Daniels continued his dual-threat dominance in the NFL, excelled in the clutch, and elevated his receivers, namely Terry McLaurin, to a career season as the Commanders reached the NFC Championship Game despite not having a good defensive unit.

Stroud and Daniels had a transformative effect on their teams, which is exactly what you hope for when you draft a quarterback that high. This is what Cam Ward will hope to do as he has some similar traits to those players.

You could argue Ward had three really solid seasons in college for Washington State (2022-23) and Miami (2024), throwing for more yards and touchdowns while increasing his yards per attempt each year. He is coming off his best season in 2024 when he led Miami to the most points in the nation (43.9 points per game) despite not having as much clear-cut NFL talent at receiver as Stroud and Daniels enjoyed in college.

Ward threw for 4,313 yards and 39 touchdowns. He’s not a Lamar Jackson type of runner at the quarterback position, but he’s more than mobile enough to run for some first downs, escape sacks, and use those skills to his advantage.

He joins an offense that would like to pass the ball on time more as that’s what Callahan is used to with Joe Burrow in Cincinnati where they had great wide receiver play. The Titans lack a great receiver, but they have three very capable veterans in returning No. 1 Calvin Ridley, Tyler Lockett (after a decade with the Seahawks), and Van Jefferson.

You could certainly see Ward elevating that group the way Stroud and Daniels did with their receivers. It’s the same way Mason Rudolph did better than Will Levis last year, but Ward is a more talented prospect than either.

Now, a play from Ward’s preseason debut this weekend that caught my eye was how deep his dropback is here at almost 12 yards from the line of scrimmage:

That’s deeper than normal for a quarterback. We’ll have to see if that’s something he does frequently or if it’s just a one-off play. If he does this a lot, you could see the Titans maybe not gain as many yards as they’d like to on some of his throws since he’s covering longer distances from the ball’s release point. But maybe the biggest concern is Ward taking deeper sacks with this strategy.

I looked at all 191 quarterbacks to take at least 100 sacks in the NFL since 1970. Their average sack loses 6.92 yards, but there’s pretty decent correlation between average loss of yards and which year you entered the NFL (-0.59).

Of the 45 quarterbacks who lose at least 7.5 yards per sack, only three of them entered the NFL after 1990: Jake Delhomme (7.54), Case Keenum (7.55), and Zach Wilson (7.83). Not exactly the list you want to be part of, but it’s also a nod to how the game has evolved with quicker passes and fewer 7-step drops.

A quarterback like Lamar Jackson only loses 5.25 yards per sack, the third lowest in this dataset. For reference: Josh Allen (6.08), Tom Brady (6.33), Peyton Manning (6.45), and Patrick Mahomes (6.63) are all outside the top 25 but still above average. Joe Burrow, who played in Callahan’s Cincinnati offense most of his NFL career, is at 6.72 yards.

Maybe Ward will fall in line with most modern quarterbacks not named Zach Wilson, but this is another thing to keep an eye on during his rookie season, which deserves more anticipation than it’s getting.

For all we know, he could go off like Stroud and Daniels did this year. That’s the best-case scenario for the Titans, and that would instantly make the AFC South much more interesting as it’s really been lacking a challenger to the Chiefs-Bills-Ravens tilt in the AFC.

If Ward is a legitimate franchise player, he’ll make us remember the Titans again quickly.

Tennessee Titans Offseason Review

We just hit the exciting change in Tennessee with the draft selection of Cam Ward. But Brian Callahan is returning with the same coordinators (Nick Holz and Dennard Wilson) from last year, so hopefully they got some better players to help them out on both sides of the ball.

Offense: Titans Get Help for Ward

It starts with what help you can put around Cam Ward. Last year, the Titans got 1,000 yards out of Calvin Ridley, and it felt like half of those came in the first quarter in Detroit. But as we said in the previous section, he’s someone who could get a bump if Ward is the real deal. Ditto for Van Jefferson and the usually reliable Tyler Lockett as the Titans should have a better wide receiver trio than Old Man versions of DeAndre Hopkins and Tyler Boyd last year.

The Titans haven’t done the greatest job of drafting wide receivers as evident by the Treylon Burks disaster. Their 2022 first-round pick, the overly hopeful replacement for A.J. Brown, hasn’t panned out with 25.9 yards per game in three seasons and that’s dropping to 0.0 in 2025 most likely after he broke his collarbone this summer. He’s been placed on injured reserve after clearing waivers. Goodnight, sweet prince.

But keep an eye on fourth-round rookie Elic Ayomanor from Stanford. He slid a little in the draft but maybe could develop here.

Tony Pollard could certainly do better in his second year with the team. Backup Tyjae Spears was just injured but should be back for the season. It’s not a terrible backfield by any stretch, but they’ll need better blocking from the young, high draft picks like guard Peter Skoronski and second-year right tackle JC Latham.

The Titans signed left tackle Dan Moore from the Steelers where he made 66 starts the last four years. He’s serviceable but likely not worth the sixth-highest OT contract the Titans gave him. But again, a franchise quarterback can make do with a tricky tackle situation, and Moore should be an upgrade over where things were in 2024.

There’s also a new right guard in veteran Kevin Zeitler, who has started 197 games for a variety of teams, including his only Pro Bowl season for the Ravens in 2023, and he was fine for the Lions’ great offense in 2024. He’ll be another improvement.

They still have Chig Okonkwo at tight end, and maybe he can pull a David Njoku and step up with his biggest year yet in Year 4 now that he has Ward at quarterback. It’s not an offense where you love any one position right now, but everything at least looks serviceable, built for a quarterback ready to come in and take things up a few notches.

Defense: Who Are the Difference Makers?

It feels like even when the Titans were winning games in 2019-21, their defense was a bit anonymous. Who are the players to really focus on here?

  • Harold Landry was their best pass rusher, but after some injuries, he’s off to New England to reunite with Mike Vrabel.
  • Defensive tackle Jeffery Simmons is good, but where is the edge rush going to come from without Landry, who still led the 2024 Titans with 9 sacks and 18 pressures?
  • One player they’ll count on is Dre’Mont Jones, who has produced 10-to-13 quarterback hits in each of the last five seasons for the Broncos and most recently Seahawks.
  • Maybe the player to watch is outside linebacker Oluwafemi Oladejo from UCLA, the No. 52 pick in the draft.
  • Oladejo used to be a middle linebacker before converting to edge, and the Titans added middle linebacker Cody Barton from Denver as a new starter. Barton will try to make it over 100 tackles for the fourth year in a row (and with four different teams after stops in Seattle, Washington, and Denver).
  • Corner L’Jarius Sneed found out quickly about NFL life away from the Chiefs, and his 2024 debut lasted five games in Tennessee before a quad injury required surgery. He’ll try to get back on track this year in a secondary that lacks stars, especially at corner.
  • Veteran free safety Xavier Woods comes over from Carolina.

Think you should count on the Titans to target defense early and often in the 2026 draft.

Best Bets for the 2025 Titans   

I can just imagine some of the things I said about the 2023 Texans and 2024 Commanders before the seasons started and they had their unexpected playoff success behind their rookie quarterbacks.

But I’m still willing to say the same things about Tennessee in 2025 with the caveat that I at least understand how Ward could turn this around right away. However, this is not a good football team on paper, but it’s a lot better than 3-14, so the team should at least be more exciting to watch even if we’re no longer getting the Levis memes on Sundays.

The division is certainly the weakest in the AFC this year, and maybe the whole NFL. That helps things for a quick turnaround, but the Titans just lack those elite players at any position, so unless Ward is one right away, it’s hard to see them having a winning record. They still have to face the West (AFC and NFC), and those can be deep divisions this year.

For the Titans to win games, you’re likely looking at division foes where a sweep of Indianapolis is possible. They could realistically win more games (four) in the division than they won all of last year if things go well. They also have the Browns and Saints on the schedule, two of the weakest teams in the league.

The issue is Callahan really didn’t do anything to stand out as a coach last year. Neither side of the ball was good, situational play wasn’t good, turnover management was bad, and it just didn’t feel like he left any imprint on the team of what he can do.

So, with a coach I’m very skeptical of, I’m going to reluctantly take the Titans to go over 5.5 wins but don’t be shocked if it’s a 6-11 season, doubling last year’s win total. Can Cam Ward win OROY for a 6-win season? Kyler Murray won it for a 2019 Arizona team that finished 5-10-1, so there’s precedent in a weak class.

He may not be the best value for the award right now, but I’d throw Ward in some award parlays for OROY this year. Hopefully he’ll pan out, but the Titans have let us down before with these high draft picks (Vince Young, Jake Locker, Marcus Mariota).

If Ward can turn this particular franchise around, he’ll definitely be remembered as a great football player above anything else, assuming Google searches are even still functional at all in 15 years.

  • NFL Pick: Tennessee Titans over 5.5 wins (-140) at FanDuel
  • NFL Pick: Cam Ward to win NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year (+300) at FanDuel

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Photo of Scott Kacsmar Scott Kacsmar11/08/2025 - 12:26 pm