Cam

Ward

Ward suffered an AC joint sprain in his right, throwing shoulder late in the year. Ward has been doing “lower-body work” and is expected to resume throwing the football in March, roughly two-to-three weeks from now. Titans coaches are reportedly focused on correcting “some of the bad habits” Ward picked up last year by improving his “base.” We should have another update on Ward’s recovery in the next couple of weeks.

Daboll praised both Ward’s athleticism and accuracy when discussing the second-year passer. Ward occasionally flashed big-play potential as a rookie, but he spent most of his debut campaign missing passes and taking sacks. Defenses took him down behind the line of scrimmage a league-high 55 times. He completed just shy of 60 percent of his passes. Daboll has had success with young quarterbacks in the past. He coaxed a playoff berth out of Daniel Jones in 2022 and oversaw a handful of solid performances from Jaxson Dart in 2025 before the Giants canned him. Daboll has a tall order ahead of him, but quarterback has become a late-bloomer position in recent years, with Caleb Williams serving as the poster child for a post-rookie rebound. Titans fans will be hoping for a similar turnaround from Ward.

Coming off a 2025 season in which he caught 47 passes for 1,003 yards and six touchdowns as the Colts’ de facto WR1, Pierce is expected to be a popular name in free agency among wideout-needy teams. ESPN’s Ryan McFadden said last week that the Raiders would also pursue Pierce in free agency. “Pierce has the vertical stretch ability to produce down the field and can play a volume role as a multilevel target for quarterback Cam Ward,” Bowen said. In Tennessee, Pierce would instantly become the team’s No. 1 receiver, though it’s hard to say if Ward would be an upgrade over the quarterbacks Pierce had in Indianapolis last season. Ward in 2025 was 21st out of 35 qualifying QBs in accuracy on downfield throws. His 9.6 percent downfield passing rate was among the lowest in the league.

According to Davenport, Ward has “been working mostly on footwork” this offseason. The No. 1overall pick of the 2025 NFL Draft is hoping to rebound from a challenging rookie season and will have a new offensive coordinator in place in Brian Daboll. Ward suffered his shoulder injury in the final week of the season, but exams revealed it was a sprained AC join that would not require surgery. Ward and the Titans have a lot to improve on in 2026 after the offense finished 30th in scoring and 31st in total yards. Hopefully a healthy offseason will lead to some growth for the second-year signal-caller.

Davenport points out that Brian Daboll ran RPOs on 12.6 percent of their plays last year, fourth-most in the league, and notes that Ward had a lot of success running them in college at Miami. We don’t know that Ward is an upper-tier NFL athlete in space, but every bit of rushing production could help him for fantasy football purposes. Perhaps being in a scheme he’s more familiar with could help as well. Ward, who sprained his AC joint in the Titans’ Week 18 loss to Jacksonville, does not currently have a timetable to return to the field but Titans GM Mike Borgonzi said he was “doing well.”

With Joe Brady landing the Bills head coaching job, Daboll is resigned to take over as OC for head coach Robert Saleh’s Titans. Daboll, who served as Bills offensive coordinator before becoming Giants head coach, will be charged with molding second-year QB Cam Ward following Ward’s uneven rookie year in which he was among the NFL’s most inefficient passers. Turning Ward into a viable starting NFL quarterback will be Saleh’s priority for 2026 as he tries to establish a winning culture for a team that has struggled mightily in recent years.

Daboll is reportedly prioritizing the Buffalo job after serving as the team’s offensive coordinator from 2018 to 2021. If the Bills pass him over, Russini said Daboll will likely join Robert Saleh as Tennessee’s offensive coordinator. Daboll would be tasked with helping Cam Ward become an NFL-viable starter quarterback after a disastrous rookie season in which he threw 15 touchdowns and seven picks over 17 games. Ward was among the most inaccurate passers in the league.

Though Smith technically remains the Steelers OC, he’ll be elsewhere in 2026 after head coach Mike Tomlin stepped down on Tuesday afternoon. Smith served as Tennessee’s offensive coordinator from 2019 to 2020, creating a dominant run-heavy offense quarterbacked by Ryan Tannehill. If the Titans bring back Smith as the team’s head coach, he would likely install a similarly run-first offense around QB Cam Ward. Probably it wouldn’t be a great development for Ward’s fantasy prospects in 2026 and beyond. Smith’s Steelers offense in 2025 ranked 18th in EPA per play. They had the league’s sixth highest rushing success rate.

Kingsbury’s work with young quarterbacks is certainly a selling point for both the Giants and Titans after Kingsbury’s success with Jayden Daniels in 2024. Kingsbury’s Washington offense was surprisingly efficient in 2025 despite the team missing Daniels for much of the regular season. Washington’s offense in 2025 was somehow 16th in EPA per play. They were ninth in offensive success rate and 12th in yards per play, ahead of postseason teams like the Broncos, Panthers, Eagles, Chargers, Jaguars, and Steelers. Kingsbury would be a boon for either Jaxson Dart or Cam Ward in 2026 and beyond.

It’s good news for the Titans quarterback. While exams revealed an AC joint sprain in his shoulder, no surgery will be required. It’s the best-case scenario for the quarterback who will turn 24 in May. Ward will be under the tutelage of a new coaching staff next year as he looks to improve his accuracy.