Titans Mailbag: Cam Ward's Future, Calvin Ridley's Role and the Rebuild

The Titans remain committed to Cam Ward, but questions about his supporting cast, defensive struggles and the franchise's direction aren't going away.

By PAUL KUHARSKY

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The Titans begin preparations Monday to return from their week off with a Sunday home game against the Jaguars.

Jacksonville will also have extra time, coming off a mini-bye after a Thursday night win over Baltimore. The Jaguars lead the AFC South and are currently in line to be third in the AFC playoff picture. 

As we turn our focus to Tennessee’s game in its Rivalries uniform, let’s dip into the mailbag for the first time in a long time.

Cam Ward
Cam Ward lets it go against the Browns / Angie Flatt

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It has nothing to do with Bryce Young, but it’s quite clear they haven’t lost faith in Cam Ward despite the record. 

All indications privately match what they are saying publicly. They love how he approaches and takes on the work, reacts to coaching and goes about his business. They wish things were moving faster, I am sure, but they are sticking with this and feel like they are seeing progress.

And after his career-best performance in Cincinnati, they actually have more cause to feel good than they have in some time.

They aren’t doing any long-term assessing in-season. They will do that after they’ve got his full body of second-year work in hand.

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From September
Cam Ward Needs Patience, but His Development Needs Urgency
Members-only analysis

Luke Shelton I completely agree that Cam should be the guy for the year, especially given recent events. That being said, the one thing that would make me consider putting in another QB is this idea of development of other players that you have raised in a couple of contexts. Do you think there is anything that Cam could do at this point (short of getting injured) that would make putting in a different QB a better choice for developing the rest of the players on the team?

Right now Cam Ward’s arrow is up. So no, I don’t see a scenario where Mitch Trubisky is doing any better at helping a Carnell Tate or a Gunnar Helm develop better or at a faster pace.

Blake Beddingfield brought it up a bit ago when Ward was struggling that he was slowing the pace of development of some of the other young offensive pieces. But Ward has been on an uptick since then and it’s not a concern right now.

For sure. It’s become clear they like Calvin Ridley’s veteran presence for what it means to Cam Ward, but it’s not translated to production. And when that’s the case, you can’t continue to give him snaps over more promising players. 

Ridley is fourth in receiver snaps with 218, behind Ayomanor (309). It felt like Dike (115) added toughness and yards after the catch in Cincinnati and yes, I’d like to see more of him.  

Early reporting out there suggests the Titans are looking for a fifth in order to move Ridley by Tuesday’s deadline. Anyone giving up that much for him would certainly be projecting more production than he’s giving Tennessee. I suspect they’d take less.

I spoke to Ridley after the Bengals game. 

“I can do more,” he said. “I can help. I need to help. I’ve got to help. I want to help this team do whatever I can.”

I think Atonio Mafi’s done pretty well, though the Bengals’ game was a drop-off, per Beddingfield.

I think Fernando Carmona did enough to get to the front of the line that he goes back to the head of the line when he’s ready. I imagine Slater will also still outrank Mafi -- you don’t typically lose your spot to injury.   

But that Mafi’s body of work has been good overall is a great development and a testament to him and to Carmen Bricillo’s strong work as the position coach.

Part matchup with the Bengals, part making up for being without the injured Carnell Tate. 

I’d put this development, along with the broader opening things up for Ward, the more frequent up-tempo offense, the increased use of Chim Dike in a big basket, where I’d like the Titans offense to take some schematic developments and shift them into more of the philosophical department.

Not all of them can be as optimized every week based on opponent, but try to use more of this stuff more often.

It’s a round better than I’m envisioning they’d be offered, and I’ve said I don’t think they should trade him for a fourth. Things are moving well on offense; they need to maximize Ward, and Tony Pollard is a big factor in that. The tone among people who follow the trade market is that they aren’t going to move him.

You have to do some things for the present, and Ward development now is more important to me than a fourth-rounder next year. That fourth-rounder would come from a playoff-caliber team, certainly, as would the third you are describing. 

It would be enough to change my mind and make me say yes. 

But I do think it would really hurt the Titans’ young QB for their final nine games, which would be a highly unfortunate development.

Valerie Gore Wilson Am I the only one bothered by how Cam runs around with the football in one hand just hanging out there to be stripped? Shouldn’t he have learned in Pee Wee league that when you take off running, you tuck the ball in for safety? I realize there are much bigger problems than this, but he never tucks the ball in when he runs with it!

This is an area where he needs to be better for sure. It’s high risk and will hurt him.

I don’t know that we would technically call it a report, would we? He cast it more like informed speculation, I felt like. And people eat this stuff up, the consumer doesn’t seem to particularly care that it’s not thoroughly checked out or backed up.

He absolutely should circle back to it, clarify it and talk about the degree to which he was wrong.

But he won’t. None of these guys do. They just move on to the next thing.

My initial take was that it said something about Harbaugh’s perception of the Titans’ dysfunction, that he thought he could maybe prompt action by going over Borgonzi’s head. And there are teams he certainly wouldn’t have tried it with.

From 30,000 feet after it’s all over and reported out, there is a good degree of Harbaugh just being strange about it.

And I understand Borgonzi being protective and having trust issues.

I do think, however, that he has opportunities in situations like this to work to somehow take steps to build some trust with a guy like Joe Schoen and start to build some new trust. I don’t want a GM whose circle is limited to guys he had previous strong relationships with. 

It would be healthiest for the Titans if something came out of it where Borgonzi made some kind of gain with Giants brass that could pay off later. Easier said than done, but finagling such situations to your team’s ultimate benefit is part of the gig.

Titans Defense and Accountability

Jonah Robbins Is the problem on defense, specifically in the secondary, the players or the scheme?

Combo platter. Troubles are rarely the result of just one thing. Certainly, they’ve conceded Alontae Taylor was miscast as an outside corner in the scheme. So that’s the player in the scheme. 

There has been a learning curve in this style of zone, which Robert Saleh talked us through. But he said by Week 10 or Game 10 they’d be laughing about things they struggled with early. That time is about upon us so we need to see it. 

Cor’Dale Flott has been showing steady improvement. Joshua Williams has appealing qualities but needs to be more consistent. Taylor can boost things in the slot. 

It needs to get better – scheme-wise and player-performance-wise. So it’s not one or the other.

Hopefully no one. Certainly, it would be disappointing that they did not make a larger gain. But if Ward is on the rise to a discernible degree, the Titans are set up with a beefier draft with the Bears’ first-rounder, even if it’s way at the back of the round. 

Continuity and continued roster building with some scheme modification would most likely serve them the best.

Matt Gobble Is Amy all in on Borgo/Saleh getting to see Rebuild 2.0 or 1.B whatever you want to call it through?

We have no idea. As I said above, I think continuity is important.

I think if it comes to the point of firing, the team is way due to have a GM and coach start together. Who exactly would be hiring them? At least football people made these last few decisions with Chad Brinker picking Borgonzi and Borgonzi picking Saleh.

She can’t be picking. Burke Nihill can’t be picking. You go to an outside firm, and it is all about its clients and connections.

It would be another mess, I’d expect.

The Titans' Next Roster Needs

Jason Takeuchi  What are the three position groups you’re most concerned about and would like us to address in the off season?

Leaving Quarterback aside for the moment...

Edge rusher tops the list. Jacob Martin is doing nice work. But the Titans need a speedy, bendy edge rusher who’s different than anyone they have and who is a matchup problem. They were 28th in pass rush success rate even before Jeffery Simmons was traded.

With the Taylor try outside having failed, they really need a premier outside corner to pair with Flott to boost the pass defense. They have to match up with top receivers better.

And while the offensive line has really done well to get significantly better, they can’t get overconfident in what they’ve done. Dan Moore should be replaced with a high draft pick if possible.

This is not my field of expertise, and even less so during the season, but right now I’d say Colin Simmons.

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Paul Kuharsky has covered the Tennessee Titans since 1996, first for The Tennessean, then ESPN.com and now independently at PaulKuharsky.com. He served on the Pro Football Hall of Fame selection committee for 11 years and is the longest-tenured Titans beat reporter in the franchise's history.

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