Las Vegas Raiders coach Pete Carroll has an interesting point of comparison for Tennessee Titans rookie quarterback Cam Ward.
“He’s got a unique style about him,” Carroll told reporters on Oct. 8. “Very athletic. Very confident. He throws tough throws and he makes tough throws. He’ll surprise you with his ability to find receivers in almost predicaments but he finds ways to make things happen . . . He’s got a scramble threat to him, but he’s looking for his receivers. He’s scrambling to throw it seems. He poses a similar threat to what we faced in Chicago.”
The Raiders (1-4) host the Titans (1-4) at Allegiant Stadium on Oct. 12 (3:05 p.m. CT, FOX). In so many words, Carroll is comparing Ward to his predecessor as the No. 1 pick in the NFL draft, Chicago’s second-year passer Caleb Williams. Williams led the Bears to a 25-24 win over the Raiders in Week 4, throwing for 212 yards and a touchdown.
Ward isn’t as extreme of a scrambler as Williams is. While Ward holds on to the ball for 2.5 seconds or more on about 58% of his dropbacks, owning a 62.3 passer rating on those attempts, Williams hangs around in the pocket or scrambles on 64% of his dropbacks, posting a 95.8 passer rating on those plays.
But the point remains that Ward ranks in the top five in the NFL on average time to throw per attempt (2.79 seconds), not that far of a drop behind Williams, the league leader at 3.01 seconds.
What becomes interesting is Ward’s relationship with these kinds of plays. When asked whether frustration ever mounted during the bulk of his early-season struggles, he offered a thoughtful answer adjacent to this very topic.
“A lot of stuff is stuff that I can control from where the ball should go every play, then also some of the reaction stuff in the pocket,” Ward said. “I didn’t need to do as much movements, especially early in the season.”
Cam Ward stats, analysis: Eyes vs instincts for Titans QB
Titans coach Brian Callahan talked after the Week 5 win in Arizona about how his advice for Ward in the second half was to keep his eyes where they were supposed to be, set his feet and throw the football.
Clearly, something worked: Ward threw for 193 yards in the fourth quarter alone, leading three scoring drives to cap a furious comeback for his, and the Titans’, first win.
At face value, that idea slightly contradicts the instructions Ward inherited from Callahan, and the instructions that were so familiar to quarterback Will Levis in Callahan’s first year in Nashville. So often, Titans quarterbacks have been encouraged to take what the defense gives them, to find the easy completions, to extend drives with check downs and live to play another down.
Consider how Ward handled the three fourth-quarter series. Discounting throwaways and plays nullified by penalty, he attempted 17 passes. He averaged 10 air yards per attempt, including five balls that traveled 12 or more yards through the air, compared against just three throws that would qualify as check-down attempts. But those three attempts resulted in two completions that set up a third-and-3 on the Titans’ game-winning drive, keeping the offense on schedule.
So maybe “contradict” is the wrong word.
“It works together really a lot of times depending on whatever the play call is or what type of situation it is,” Ward said. “Then a lot of times it could be reactionary to where the ball should go, but sometimes in the game it doesn’t happen like that. So really just got to be able to see and find it.”
Nick Suss is the Titans beat writer for The Tennessean. Contact Nick at [email protected]. Follow Nick on X @nicksuss. Subscribe to the Talkin’ Titans newsletter for updates sent directly to your inbox.
