Cam Ward - Head Coach, titans Event: Press Conference | Date: 2026-09-05 | Full transcript (primary source).
On September 5, 2026, Cam Ward, Head Coach of the Titans, addressed the media in a press conference following a recent practice session. The discussion focused on the team's performance, player injuries, and the development of on-field chemistry as they prepare for the upcoming season.
Transcript
Ward: Full start, for sure. But I think as we got going, the energy started to pick up. We started being more efficient in the past game, being more efficient in the run game. Overall, it was a pretty good day.
Ward: Kamiel took a pretty hard hit. Did you get a chance to talk to him? What was your? Oh, yeah, he's good. I got to put him in a better situation. So that's really more of me than on him. But he's tough. He's going to have to take a hit like that this season. I'm doing my best to try to prevent that as much as I can, throwing a ball. But he got up. He's good. And I'm going to make sure I don't put him in that position again.
Ward: You saw your target take a lot today. Was part of that intentional? Or was that just where your reads were going? What was it behind so many targets to 14? He was open, honestly, giving me a step on the defender. Then me and him also continue to grow together, me putting the ball in a radius where he can make a play on it. And then him also make it a play on when I'm not as accurate. So it is vice versa. But he had a pretty good day. He showed why he was that big. But me and him, it's more of us continuing to be consistent, whether I'm going to him a lot or I'm going to him one time. Me and him had to continue to be in the same mindset as we're the go-getters and we've got to make the plays.
Ward: How encouraging was it there was one huge scramble to your right. He broke his right off work his way back to you. How encouraging was it to see you guys very much on the same pace as Scrammiger? Oh, that's great. That's something that we watch tape on each and every day at Scrammiger. They know it's going to be a big part of our offense. We're going to be able to hit explosives. We're going to be at a, there's going to be throwaways in Scrammiger. But as long as we have our angles right and knowing when to go up field, when to come back down towards me, I think it's going to be able to help us in the long run. He had a great day at Scrammiger.
Ward: You guys did blow sharks working on that connection because I'm going to drop this one. You guys take a big step forward today doing what you did together against the calling? I just think it was just routine plays for me and him. It's really more of me and him trusting each other each and every down. And whether it's not a great route or whether it's not a great ball by myself, me and him are continuously getting on that connection to where I can always trust him. He can always trust me. There's going to be times, and I told him today, you're going to have to build me out. There's going to be times where I've got to put the ball, you know, in the perfect spot, he got to make a play. But it's really just me and him continue to learn each other, continue to be in a real game atmosphere, whether it's in the preseason game or whether it's in practice versus a different team. Let's just continue to be more consistent and myself putting the ball in his frame.
Ward: You and your first team offense can have one more opportunity in the preseason. How important is it for you guys to put together some consistency to go out on before the real thing begins? It's important. Just need to show consistent plays first and second down. We haven't really been in any major third and long so far. So I think the more we can play efficient on first, second down is going to be able to take care of everything. They will be able to score, you know, some more points.
Ward: Can you and Caleb are in a pretty exclusive club to the one overall picks? Where have I actually known him at all? Have you met him, talked to him? Yeah, I've met him before. I had some conversations with him.
Ward: What do you guys call him? Stuff outside football, honestly.
Ward: What is it? Whether he's good. Mentally with his family, his family's good, healthy. My dad and his dad, you know, they talk a whole bunch. And so, you know, it's good because he's a good quarterback. He took his team to the playoffs. And so, you know, we both go through different situations, different types of adversity whether it can be early or late. But I mean, it's good to have, you know, another good quarterback out here on the field that way our defense can get some good work here.
Ward: Can one of you guys practice better against first team defenses that you guys have played against second team defenses in the games? Oh, I just think more of the practice we're doing, more game stuff that we can do in a real football game. It's a lot of stuff that, you know, we don't want to put on tape to showing the preseason game that doesn't matter. It's more of, you know, getting better at the stuff that we know we're going to do come week one and week two and week three. And then, you know, it's a difference when, you know, you know, the certain types of plays that we're putting in each and every week compared to, you know, every plays in. So it's a little bit of everything, but at the end of the day, there's no excuses. You know, no matter we play the ones, twos, and threes, any day and in the field, there ain't no backups. It's the reason why, you know, they're on the roster right now. It's the reason why, you know, a backup can make a 53-man roster. Everybody's good. So it's really us keeping the same mindset. No matter who we're playing, we just got to continue to get better at our craft.
Ward: So what do you get out of playing things in the games that you're not going to do? Oh, we continue to get our timing down. We continue to get real game reps on mic points, on protections, when I need to flip protections, when I need to reverse the call or make a whole new play call for myself, I want to check to something. But it's real game reps. But, you know, that's the beauty of it because we get a chance to, we can have a missed opportunity from my room, from the old lineman room. We got a missed block. The bats can miss a cut, but it's all the little things that we're trying to get out the way during the preseason. So that way we can win, you know, we can be on all 10.
Ward: Talk about Bellinger since he's been here. What kind of addition he took to his team. So he's great. He knows his role. And I think what he's not going to get a lot of credit for is he's going to be able to help us a lot in the passing game. He's able to break tackles. He's able to get key, you know, first downs on third and long stuff that he did with the Giants. He's a great competitor. He's a great teammate. He shows up each and every day with the right mindset because it's hard to do what that guy does. You know, he's 260 maybe. He's blocking 330 pound people at his weight. So, you know, he has the right mindset each and every day. So that was a great addition, you know, that we added for sure.
Ward: How would you evaluate your mechanics, specifically your footwork through the first two preseason games? I think it was good. I think it's Tom's, you know, I need to feel the rush less early in the game, especially if it hasn't made an impact. But as far as the timing and the receivers, I believe we're at a great stop right now. It's not what we want. We got some misplays, some mis-opportunities in both games. But at the end of the day, it's about how can we avoid this come week one, whether it's from my room, whether it's from the receiver room. And it's all really, you know, playing the next play because in a day we're going to have a drop. We're going to have a bad throw. Overline's going to give up a sack this year. Like, it's inedible. So, you know, the more we can limit that stuff, the more it would be to have a consistent and efficient offense.
Ward: Just because he made the move. His advice to you going into year two would be to trust your coordinator, working with a new coordinator. For you, like, at what point did he get to you where, okay, I fully trust Brian Daymore, and what was it that made you have that trust? I trust him as soon as we hired him. You know, I had a great relationship, like I said, with him throughout the pre-drive process. But I could trust him from day one because he immediately took my knowledge of the game of what I like to run, what I was comfortable with running, and he immediately implemented in the offense. And so that showed me right there that he's willing to at least listen to me. At the end of the day, he has a lot of stuff that goes through his head when he's calling plays. It's stuff that he has to protect. It's stuff where he can let loose and call whatever he wants. But he knows that, you know, who he has as a quarterback, he knows I trust him and he trusts me.
Ward: Do you look at Kayla Wentz? Because there are similarities, obviously, in your game. Do you look at what he was able to do last year that is something like, okay, that's something I could pull from in my year or two? Oh, yeah, we got a chance to watch their film. A couple more teams film as well. I think the best thing about them that, you know, they were from his year to year two is that they were way more efficient on first and second down. And that's really, you know, if you can keep yourself out of third and longs, that's where you can potentially win the game. And that's why I think that we've grown already, you know, with Daywell here as the first year, myself, you know, the whole offense, I think we've become way more efficient. You know, even the OTAs through training camp is being efficient on first and second down. The anytime we can stay out of third and long, you know, it's hard because in third and five or less, you pretty much know what they can play. They can still do something different. But when you get into, you know, third and six, third and, you know, seven, 10 plus, you know, that's when you got a really key in on your protections. It's going to be deeper dropbacks. They know it's a dropback pass, so you're really playing, you know, at the defensive advantage.
Ward: For getting back to everybody else, how would you, how would Cam Ward assess the way Cam Ward has played so far this preseason? How do you assess it? Not well.
Ward: You don't think so? I don't think so. I'm glad you don't think so. That's good.
Ward: Cam, how would you assess it? You know, I assess it as, you know, did we win the game or did we lose the game? I assess it as to what I can get better at. I don't assess it as someone who can get up there and, you know, operate when everything's on. It's a different process level. So it's more of, you know, slowing down the game to everybody. And I believe we made a huge jump for week one and week two because we're getting more condensed in the playbook. We're not really opening everything up. And, you know, when we come to week one, I think it would all be a different story.
Ward: Cam, this is your third joint practice. This will be your third preseason game on Saturday. Have you added anything new to your process and how you approach different things, how you approach different practices, how you approach, you know, your film study and things of that nature now that you've had this time to mature into the offense? I'd say consistently being in Coach Dable's ear about what I like, and then me consistently watching film with him and show the quarterback coach. Because I think we see the same things, whether I'm in with the mid-chain with the two, we're always thinking the same spot with the ball. There was a couple of situations today where I should have put the ball in different spots, trying to force some things. But I mean, that's what, you know, I have these practices for because, you know, it's some teams where you can, you can fit balls to hold shots to down the middles just because whether the safety is to get off the hash too much or whether they're not fast enough. So it's me consistently watching more on the players I'm playing against and knowing what their, you know, strong suits are then, you know, what their weaknesses are and then try to attack their weaknesses.
Ward: You're busy with camp and you peek at the jets a little bit as you get closer to week one or where you're staying there? Oh, a little bit. Not too much, though, cause we still got the Bears. But I mean, it's a, we got, you know, two good defenses in, you know, this last preseason preseason game and week one, the jets, they're going to be very physical. I got a chance to meet Coach Glenn during the pre-jar process. He's awesome, dude. You know, the Bears are going to be a physical team. They play a lot of man coverage. You'll get to, you know, some, some different zones as well. So it was really about us, you know, taking our base plays that we're good at, going through our rules and then making good decisions.
Ward: And what would you say is the biggest thing the offense has taken away from facing three different defenses? Well, I think it took away that we're very physical, especially in the run game. I think the O-line gets great movement. Then we have to drop back, you know, we can do it at a successful rate. It's really more of us doing it, you know, first and second down. So we can have a third and two or third and three. So we don't have to be in a true dropback situation. And I think the best part where we are right now is our backs and protection. They really, you know, key in, whether it's different fronts, whether it's easy fronts that our defense gives us a practice. So I think we're in the right direction. We just got to continue to keep going forward.
Ward: Thanks, Tim.