The numbers from No. 1 overall pick Cam Ward’s debut don’t look great, but they fail to tell the whole story.
Ward ended Tennessee’s season-opening loss to Denver 12-of-28 for 112 yards. While he didn’t have any touchdowns or interceptions, he did take six sacks and lost a fumble.
But Ward’s completion rate was affected by a mistake from his head coach, plus several drops by his receiving corps. The quarterback, however, hasn’t lost confidence in his pass catchers.
“I am never going to get on those guys for dropping a ball,” Ward said in his Wednesday press conference, via Jim Wyatt of the team’s website. “I’m going to throw a pick at some point in the season. So, bad plays are going to happen. The biggest thing is when we get back to the huddle, we have to always have a next-play mentality. I am not too worried about that — those boys are going to catch the ball.”
Ward also took the blame for his sacks.
“I think it was more me just not getting the ball out,” Ward said. “Especially the back-to-back sacks. … There’s stuff I have to get better at, week by week. At the end of the day, nobody is going to be perfect.
“Me, the O-line, we’re good. I had some bad pocket movement as well, so I take full responsibility on my part, and they’ll do the same as well. We are still getting used to each other, but we’ll turn it around, try to get a win this week.”
Ward and the Titans will host the Rams for the No. 1 overall pick’s home debut on Sunday.
Browns quarterback Joe Flacco and Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford can join a select group of quarterbacks with wins on Sunday.
Flacco and Stafford have each beaten 30 different NFL teams in their NFL careers, and both play against one of the two opponents they haven’t beaten on Sunday.
Flacco, who played most of his career for the Ravens, faces the Ravens on Sunday and would have a win over his 31st different opponent if his Browns win this week. Flacco has played against the Ravens only once, a loss when he was starting quarterback for the Jets.
Stafford has never beaten the Titans, but if the Rams win on Sunday they’ll become the 31st different team to lose to Stafford as the opposing quarterback.
The other team Flacco has never beaten is the Seahawks. He’s 0-1 against the Seahawks and won’t get a chance against them this year, as the Browns don’t face the Seahawks in 2025.
The other team Stafford has never beaten is the Steelers. He’s 0-3 against the Steelers and won’t get a chance against them this year, as the Rams don’t face the Steelers in 2025.
Four quarterbacks in NFL history have wins over all 32 NFL teams: Peyton Manning, Brett Favre, Tom Brady and Drew Brees. Aaron Rodgers, who has wins over 31 teams, will join that list this year if his Steelers beat the Packers.
The only other quarterbacks since the 1970 AFL-NFL merger who have beaten every team that was in the league when they played were Frank Tarkenton and Joe Montana, both of whom got wins over 28 different franchises.
Five other quarterbacks have wins over 31 NFL teams. Three of them are retired and will never get a 32nd win: Ben Roethlisberger, Alex Smith and Kerry Collins. The others are Patrick Mahomes, who has wins over every team but the Chiefs, and Russell Wilson, who has wins over every team but the Seahawks. Mahomes obviously won’t get a win over the Chiefs any time soon, and Wilson’s Giants don’t play the Seahawks this year, so he can’t join the club of quarterbacks with wins over all 32 teams.
With wins on Sunday, Flacco and Stafford would become the 11th and 12th quarterbacks with wins over 31 franchises.
Both of the Rams’ starting guards left Sunday’s win over the Texans with ankle injuries, and head coach Sean McVay offered an update on their condition Monday.
Left guard Steve Avila and right guard Kevin Dotson have both been diagnosed with sprains. McVay said both players are considered week-to-week.
Avila played 31 of 60 offensive snaps in the victory, while Dotson left the game after playing 45 snaps. Avila was able to return after picking up the injury.
Beaux Limmer stepped in for his injured teammates and played 44 snaps. Justin Dedich is listed behind Avila on the depth chart, but he was inactive against Houston.
Titans head coach Brian Callahan’s explanation on Sunday for not using a challenge flag after an apparent catch by rookie wideout Elic Ayomanor was ruled incomplete didn’t make any sense and he admitted it on Monday.
Ayomanor went up over Broncos corner Riley Moss to snag a Cam Ward pass and his elbow appeared to land in the field of play before the rest of his body landed out of bounds. Callahan wrongly said that Ayomanor also had to get a foot down inbounds, although the NFL rulebook is clear that a catch is good if a player “touches the ground inbounds with both feet or with any part of his body other than his hands.”
On Monday, Callahan acknowledged his initial answer was incorrect.
“My interpretation of the rule was wrong,” Callahan said. “I’ll own it. We should have challenged the play and that’s pretty much all I can say about it.”
Callahan said on Sunday that “the call from upstairs was that it wasn’t worth challenging,” so he was asked if those advising him about the play were also unaware of the league’s rules for what constitutes a catch. Callahan declined to say anything about the “process” and said it fell on him as the head coach.
It was a major blunder for Callahan in a one-score road loss and he can’t afford too many more errors if he wants to assure himself of a long stay in Tennessee.
The Titans lost to the Broncos in Denver on Sunday afternoon, but they may have given themselves a better chance of winning the game if they had a firmer grasp of the rules governing what constitutes a catch.
Rookie wide receiver Elic Ayomanor went up to try for a pass from Cam Ward with the Titans trailing the Broncos 13-12 in the third quarter and was ruled to have come down out of bounds while making the grab. Replays showed that Ayomanor’s elbow appeared to land in the field of play before any part of his body hit out of bounds, which led to a question for head coach Brian Callahan about why he didn’t challenge the ruling by officials.
“Yeah, you gotta get a foot inbounds too,” Callahan said. “We didn’t have a clean look at whether his foot was down as well. An elbow doesn’t equal two feet so his foot would’ve had to come down as well. The call from upstairs was that it wasn’t worth challenging.”
The problem with Callahan’s answer is that the NFL rulebook doesn’t back up his claim. Per the rules, a pass is complete if a player secures the ball and “touches the ground inbounds with both feet or with any part of his body other than his hands.”
An elbow would qualify as another part of the body. That doesn’t mean that the Titans would have won a challenge or won the game, but the explanation from the coach was based only on what the league’s rules say and it was incorrect.
Callahan was not asked a followup to clarify his answer on Sunday. He’ll likely field one on Monday because it appears that he and his staff had a major lapse in the heat of the moment.
