INDIANAPOLIS – Much has been made of the scheme Brian Daboll will install for Cam Ward.
But Robert Saleh said it won’t be the separator, distinguishing Ward as a second-year player from the rookie we saw struggle often amid great flashes.
It’s the decision-making that will key a transformation.
I started out with questions about what the harder lessons will be for Cam Ward. I wound up with answers applicable well beyond quarterback.
“It’s always going to be decision-making, and I think that goes for every single position,” Saleh said in a small get together with beat-writers ahead of his big podium session at the scouting combine. “I always say that scheme is really football 101. Everyone can learn the scheme, everyone can teach the scheme. As a coach I can teach you every scheme you want.
“Whether or not the player has the capacity to learn the scheme and play to the speed that he needs to play is a different story.”
If scheme is teachable, then the evaluation of Ward in Year 2 shouldn’t be about playbook knowledge – it should be about how fast he sees it and how cleanly he acts on it.
Ward is about to have his sixth offensive coordinator in six seasons with Brian Daboll, who said last week he’s eager to see the game through his quarterback’s eyes and to understand it from his perspective.
Daboll wants to know as much as possible about Ward before designing the offense the Titans will place him in, which will obviously have base elements but will also evolve for him.
Saleh touted Daboll’s Erhardt-Perkins system because it’s not the same Shanahan system a majority of teams deploy. Daboll downplayed the difference, saying everybody runs the same stuff outside of window dressing and tempo.
In 2024, Dave Canales took over Bryce Young in Carolina – a No. 1 pick in his second year. Young wobbled early and was benched for a couple games. But he made significant strides in 2025, helping the 8-9 Panthers get to the playoffs. At his best, Young showed a better grasp.
“It was easier teaching the scheme,” Canales said. “The decision-making and all that part of it comes with time and gets work, once you’re starting to groove those different concepts and get a full understanding. That’s when the mastery piece comes into play and that’s what we’re after.”
Saleh wants Ward to learn the scheme as quickly as he can to get to a place where he executes it without a lot of thought.
‘He’s got to get comfortable with his footwork and he’s got to get comfortable in repetition,” Saleh said. “That’s where your decision-making will start to get better. That’s ever single player.”
The plan is to take Ward back to square one. When he and the rookie class joined a Brian Callahan-coached team, the Titans were already well along in OTAs. Like all around the league, they raced to catch up.
That scheme may have been off.
It didn’t embrace Ward’s off-script capabilities and may have worked too hard too soon to constrict him. Saleh said he doesn’t want Ward to feel he needs to be Superman, but Daboll acknowledges that’s an important part of his arsenal. Last year’s staff called him a hunter and he did struggle to accept easy yards too often. A better balance needs to be found, and his decisions will be central to that.
“We can take more of a marathon approach,” Saleh said. “We’ve got Phase 1, we’ve got Phase 2, we’ve got different ways we can approach them between now and Week 1 to get them prepared. Just taking those baby steps, learning everything it takes to be a quarterback, not just on the field.”
New Cardinals coach Mike LaFleur is talking over an uncertain quarterback situation. He said no matter the age or experience of a 
quarterback's scheme only does so much.
“It’s players and plays, not players over plays,” he said. “You build that scheme on foundational aspects of what you want to do. You build that scheme around what that quarterback can do also, and what he’s comfortable with.”
Ward is in the Titans’ building every day, rehabilitating his throwing shoulder.
Saleh can’t really talk football with him. But there is a small level of chit chat that is allowing for them to get to know each other.
Ward’s new coach expects he’ll learn the scheme and make good decisions in it.
“A man who’s built the way he is, who’s wired the way he is, and works the way he does,” Saleh said. “It’s very rare that those people don’t find success.”