NASHVILLE, Tenn. – When the Titans recently offered a glimpse behind the scenes of their June minicamp, Nick Holz spelled out the key to the offense:
“Timing is everything.”
On the field for the first practice of camp Wednesday, I watched Cam Ward closely to see what I could learn about his timing, how in synch he was with his targets and how he dealt with the defense.
Before it started, I asked Brian Callahan to build on what Holz said.
“The feet are really everything when it comes to your timing in the offense,” he said. “Everything is tied to is it a three-step drop? Is it a five-step drop? Is it under center play-action? Seven-step drop? Are you taking one hitch, two hitches? What is the route depth? What are the receiver steps? So all of that stuff works together.
“The way I've learned offensive football from a lot of really good coaches is that the success of the passing game depends on the timing and discipline of the receivers and the quarterback and that's ultimately what we're trying to get done. Cam's got great feet, he understands it, and now it's just repping that over and over again to where it becomes second nature.”
He only really threw deep once, a play up the right side aimed for Treylon Burks that Jarvis Brownlee covered well and broke up. The Titans start out with mostly short passes at camp, as receivers don’t stretch things out in the first couple of days. That meant short drops for Ward, Brandon Allen and Tim Boyle on mostly shorter throws.
Ward’s timing looked to be pretty good and his footwork seemed to come very naturally, though he had two or three plays with sloppy footwork.
The team’s overall praise of the quarterback’s early timing is not just standard rookie hype.
“His timing is up to date,” Calvin Ridley said. “He whips it and it’s smooth, it’s an easy, catchable ball. He’s a young rookie and he knows how to throw the ball on time.”
Ward has bought into the philosophy.
“Everything revolves around timing in our opinion,” Ward said. “No matter what the coverage is defensively, in my mind timing and ball placement will always beat anything. That’s just something that we bank reps in, of course in OTAs and minicamp to now.
“It was real good (today), especially in our quick game, just getting guys the ball, letting them make plays after the catch.”
On his first throw when the offense worked with five eligible receivers against no defense, he took a shotgun snap, hit his back foot and doubled it with an extra bounce. His primary receiver to the left had botched the route, so he reset. The concept fell apart and he took an easy short completion over the middle to Tony Pollard.
As defenders were added, first a back seven, then a full 11, the morning included several checkdowns to Tyjae Spears, where Ward found clever ways to get the back the ball.
Sometimes, the timing was not about getting the ball out quickly, but about waiting for things to unfold.
In seven-on-seven, out of shotgun, he took an extra hop before a pass to Elic Ayomanor as he paused for him to uncover. Ayomanor was a touch late getting into the window. Ward recognized it and waited on him, not patting the ball, which is a bad habit some QBs fall into in such situations.
In team, Ward did well to turn away from the front side of a play, recognizing he didn’t have what he was looking for, and checking down to Van Jefferson in the flat.
On one play where I really noticed the defense mess up Ward’s timing, he shrugged as Roger McCreary charged in from his right, and threw hurriedly, incomplete up the left side for Ridley. His feet may have gotten crossed up there.
Later, he pulled down a high snap shotgun snap from Corey Levin and didn’t let it throw off his clock, quickly launching the deep pass for Burks that Brownlee broke up. It was a pretty good throw that Burks got both hands on, though Ward might have led Burks a little bit more.
Allen played for the 49ers in 2019 and the Broncos in 2024 in addition to three years in a system a lot like this one in Cincinnati with Brian Callahan. Allen said Callahan’s scheme is more timing-reliant than others he’s been in.
“The route styles, the certain route concepts we have where I think playing with your feet, knowing that you’re on time with throws, when you need to get off certain throws, to your next read, I think timing is a big part of this offense,” he said. “There are certain situations you can hang in there and make a play on certain things.
"I do think the timing and the rhythm of the offense and getting the ball out of your hand on time and where it’s 
supposed to be is how this offense rolls.”
Ward can’t do all that.
He needs receivers to be in their spots on time. Ayomanor said in the spring that Ward is on time and he learned quickly that he better be too. The QB also needs protection to allow for things that need time to develop to develop.
“He’s doing great, he really is,” Allen said. “From the first day I saw him from OTAs until now, you can see the strides he’s made and really just his comfortability with the offense. And knowing, ‘Hey, this coverage dictates I really should think about getting the ball out here on this first read’ or ‘This coverage really stinks versus this play, I really should get back to my second read.’
“So you can see him really learning and developing and getting that coming along.”
