NASHVILLE — Tennessee Titans rookie quarterback Cam Ward talked more than a couple of times about valuing the potential stability of working with coach Brian Callahan for the long haul.
Now, just six games into Ward’s pro football career, Callahan is gone. He was fired by the Titans on Monday, a day after a 20-10 road loss to the Las Vegas Raiders dropped Tennessee to 1-5 this season and the second-year head coach’s overall record to 4-19.
Ward, who came to the Titans as the No. 1 pick of this year’s NFL draft after setting multiple program records in his lone season with the Miami Hurricanes last fall, is being forced to adapt quickly. The good news is that’s not new for Ward, who played his first two college seasons at Incarnate Word and his next two at Washington State before joining the Hurricanes, improving every step of the way.
“I’ve dealt with coaching changes at really every stop I’ve had in my past,” Ward said Wednesday. “The biggest thing is we’re trying to score points as an offense. Our defense, they’re playing hard for us each and every game.”
The lack of improvement on offense with Ward is part of what cost Callahan — the offensive coordinator for the Cincinnati Bengals for five seasons before getting his first head-coaching opportunity with the Titans — his job in Nashville.
Ward, the first rookie quarterback in franchise history to start the first six games, completed a season-high 26 passes for a 68.4% completion rate during the loss to the Raiders, but Tennessee ranks last in the NFL in total offense and 31st in both rushing yards per game and passing yards per game.
All but one of Tennessee’s losses this season have been by 10 or more points, and some of the yards they’ve managed on offense have come too late to help. They struggle to keep their offense on the field, ranking last in the league on third-down conversions at 28.05% and last in first downs per game.
When asked if it was time for change, left guard Peter Skoronski said he doesn’t make the decisions, but the No. 11 pick of the 2023 draft also said that “obviously things were not working for us offensively, and so I think that change is not a bad thing.”
Ward, drafted as the centerpiece of Tennessee’s rebuilding plan, is 30th in the league in passer rating (67.3), 22nd with 1,101 passing yards and tied for 33rd with just three touchdown passes.
Interim coach Mike McCoy, in his 23rd year in the NFL and a former head coach of the San Diego Chargers from 2013-16, said the coaches will be “brutally honest” with players and hold them all accountable.
Quarterbacks coach Bo Hardegree will continue to call plays for the offense, a duty Callahan handed over to him after the Titans started this season 0-3. Offensive line coach Bill Callahan is the other on-field coach gone after his son was fired.
McCoy, who said he has talked a handful of times with Ward over the past couple of days, noted that quarterback is the hardest position to play in the NFL, and his message has been for the rookie to keep plugging away.
“Cam has a burning desire to be great,” McCoy said. “… and the key thing I always tell him: ‘Just trust the system and go out there and be you. Have fun. Be Cam.'”
The first test of how these changes affect Ward and the offense comes Sunday, when the Titans host the New England Patriots, off to a 4-2 start in their first season under Mike Vrabel, who was Tennessee’s head coach from 2018-23.
McCoy’s guiding principle of focusing on players and not plays should give the Titans a chance to put Ward in position to perform. Ward knows McCoy has worked with quarterbacks such as Philip Rivers, and the rookie is looking to play more freely — from the moment the call comes in to breaking the huddle to executing.
“The biggest thing is just, you know, me being better every play,” Ward said. “I haven’t played my best ball. And I think just once I’m playing to my standards that I put on myself, we’ll be able to take care of a lot of stuff on offense.”