Breaking Down Cam Ward's Rookie Season
“He’s going to be a great quarterback in this league. He’s kind of, I ain’t gonna lie, [he’s] got a Mahomes feel to him when [he’s] out there. Being able to extend plays while still having his eyes down the field. [He’s] a phenomenal young quarterback, and he went #1 for a reason.”
That’s what Saints defensive end Chase Young had to say about Ward after playing against him in Week 17 last season. Pretty high praise to compare him to Patrick Mahomes, to say the least.
The invoking of Mahomes’ name for the sake of comparison probably happens a bit too frequently in the NFL QB analysis world. I’m certainly guilty of it. In fact, I shared a similar sentiment in my Pre-Draft breakdown of Ward last year:
“He’s got a lot of Patrick Mahomes in him in terms of the way he scrambles. And by that I mean he’s patient. He’s willing to hold the ball until the last possible moment, which forces defenders to cover for longer periods of time. And he’s got the evasion skills to successfully keep plays going for a long time.”
However, in this case, I do think it’s a legitimate comparison due to Ward’s combination of physical ability and patience as a scrambler:
The play below gives you a good sense for why Chase Young (#99) saw a little bit of Mahomes in Ward:
Physical talent isn’t everything for a quarterback, but the ability to make throws that few others can (whether scrambling or in the pocket) gives you a distinct advantage. And Ward is near the top of the league in this department:
My word.
Imprecise in Too Many Areas
Tremendous highlights like the ones shown above are not enough at the NFL level, though. Ward learned that the hard way during his rookie season.
He completed less than 60% of his passes for an astonishingly low 5.9 yards per attempt, good for 33rd in the NFL.
He also threw just 15 touchdown passes. And while it was encouraging that he finished the year with only 7 interceptions, he did turn the ball over 14 times (Tied for 7th-most in the NFL).
Ward also tied Geno Smith as the most sacked quarterback in the NFL. Sacks are always tricky in terms of assigning blame. The protection obviously plays a large role, and the Titans did finish 30th in the NFL in pressure percentage allowed. But the quarterback also shares substantial responsibility for sacks, whether that’s in the form of not making decisions quickly enough, holding onto the ball too long, or not understanding where a free rusher might be coming from:
So what was the key reason for the underwhelming rookie season? You can certainly blame some of it on the situation. The Titans went 3-14 for a reason.
Ward didn’t have a ton of help around him. The Titans finished 30th in rushing yards per game and no wide receiver on the roster had more than 48 receptions. Not to mention, he had to deal with a head coach firing just 6 games in.
It wasn’t an ideal scenario for a rookie by any means.
But many of the issues Ward had were due to his inability to play the position with enough precision.