Steelers Fans React to Kenny Pickett’s Struggles in Disastrous Raiders Debut
Steelers fans react to Kenny Pickett’s rough debut with the Raiders
Cam Ward’s Path Mirrors NFL Struggles We've Seen Before
The Tennessee Titans got thoroughly dismissed by the New England Patriots in Nashville on Sunday, losing 31-13 after a quick start of false hope. Brian Callahan was the first coach fired in the NFL in 2025 last week, and all eyes were on what the change would mean for Cam Ward and company when the Ghost of Christmas Past came to town: Mike Vrabel and his Patriots. This narrative storm was a supercell.
But in the end, the Patriots handled the Titans with ease in predictable fashion. The "dead cat bounce" for the Titans lasted less than two quarters, and things got out of hand quickly. Cam Ward ended up turning the ball over twice and getting sacked five times in what was ultimately an up and down outing for him. It wasn't all bad, in fact there was a decent amount that was promising and can be built upon. But the bad was loud enough to probably get the wheels turning on a broader discussion anyways.
Like it or not, this week is when people are going to start talking about Cam Ward as the future of the Tennessee Titans. It's going to be a topic on every national and local show. Articles are going to be written. Hypotheticals are going to be discussed. Because the ugly truth is this: rookie quarterbacks aren't allowed to struggle.
Cam Ward's rookie year is being performed under duress
Rookie quarterbacks aren't allowed to bad anymore, at least. That didn't used to be the case. But in 2025, nobody seems to have the patience necessary to let guys develop. Everything gets boiled down to a binary: you're either in, or you're out on a guy. And right now, a lot of people are being pushed towards the "out" side of the ledger on Cam Ward because of his flashy mistakes.
In the wake of this coaching change, the attention on Ward is naturally shifting. With Callahan no longer around to scapegoat when it comes to offense and QB shortcomings, the young passer is going to catch more heat. And the reality is, through nearly two months, his statistical resume in the NFL is poor. His team is 1-6, and he's completed 57.6% of his passes. He's tallied 1,356 yards, 4 touchdowns, 5 interceptions, and 5 lost fumbles. His 70.9 passer rating is very uninspiring.
Oh what I'd do to go back to the way I felt about the young passer following his debut in Denver. Despite the loss, he showed a lot of promise in that Week 1 game. The bright spots were all there. In the month and a half since, things have mostly trended in the wrong direction. Against the Patriots, he had a couple of plays in particular that exemplified ugly trends. For starters, his inaccuracy remains a real concern. He missed a couple of receivers badly, almost all behind them. He failed to convert a third down on the first drive of the game to Elic Ayomanor breaking inside, thrown completely behind and outside of his reach. Then in the fourth quarter, in almost the exact same spot on the field, he did the same thing to an in-breaking Chig Okonkwo. Chig got a hand on the ball before it ended up in the arms of a Patriots defender, intercepted.
There was also his unforced fumble in the pocket, something that has embarrassingly happened in back-to-back weeks now. It came on the first drop back for the Titans in the second half, after their 10-13 lead was erased by back-to-back Patriot touchdowns before and after halftime. He dropped back, cocked back his arm, and the ball lept out of his hand. That's really the best way to describe what happened. It's exactly what happened to him last week against the Raiders too, except this time it led to an easy Patriots scoop-and-score. Just like that, Vrabel's squad had 21 unanswered points, and the game was over.
When we asked Ward about the play after the game, he agreed that it was the play that ultimately did them in. "I think just with the quick start is just us having urgency," he explained. "That's how we need to start every game and maintain it throughout the whole game. And the third quarter, really, fumbling the football, I think that was what really set us back. If I don't do that, the game does get out of hand that fast. So just got to continue to have ball security and get better.
The ball just slipped on that play, he told us. But it's happened twice in two weeks, so what's going on here? "Got to hold on to it tighter" he said. "But really, just got to continue to emphasize it within myself. Got to be better at it. I know that's something that I can't continue to let happen. I got to cut that out next week." Ward's nine inch hands surely aren't helping in this bizarre fumbles department. For reference, Kenny Pickett's notoriously small hands are eight and a half inches across.
When Is It Fair To Panic On Cam Ward?
I understand the urge to panic over how things have started for Ward as a Titan. We all feel the stress of it to an extent. But Cam's day outside of a couple loud mistakes was actually relatively promising. Especially in the first half when the game was still in phase, he seemed to be identifying open players downfield and getting through his reads well. He connected on a deep ball for his sole touchdown, and that wasn't the only impressive throw. He also did a better job of taking what was available to him underneath, though there's still room for improvement in that area.
His counting stats were promising within the scope of his seven game career too. 73.5% completion percentage is his best to date, as is his 92.2 passer rating and 7.5 yard per attempt. 255 yards total on the day isn't some massive breakthrough by any means, but that's the 2nd most productive outing he's had so far. Now, is that aided by trailing for the majority of the game? There's no doubt. And can we say with a straight face that he was good today except for the insane unforced fumble that's now happened twice in a row, and inaccuracy issues that ended drives and led to another turnover? No, you can't just take those out.
But that's what this was, an up and down day. And that's what this is for rookies, an up and down year. It's how it goes for guys like Ward, stuck on rosters that are in desperate need of renovation and multiple injections of new talent. Giving up on, or crowning, or submitting a verdict on a rookie QB through seven games will never not be asinine. In fact, only in rare cases is it wise to do these things after a full first year. That's especially the case for a QB fighting to survive a bad team, infrastructure, or organization writ large. Balls and strikes should be able to be called without being misunderstood as sweeping, final condemnation. But patience is absolutely still required. This is something we've seen other young quarterbacks on other teams in recent history come out the other side of successfully.
With Callahan gone, what Ward does is just going to be amplified. When the bad is louder than the good like it was today, that doesn't necessarily mean it outweighed the good. In this case, I don't think that it did. But in terms of a narrative, for fans and the media, it sure can be what sticks in the front of our minds. And I expect that's what will happen this week.
Good thing Cam will keep trucking along either way.
