Titans Finish Season With Cam Ward Hurt and Everything Still Broken

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JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Whatever slight progress the Titans made late this season, the final taste they left was the same one that’s really defined the entire year.

Bad. The kind that makes you scrunch up your face and leaves a long aftertaste.

Package the progress the Titans made in Weeks 14–17 and set it over there. Week 18 as a capper was awful, with Cam Ward suffering what Jeff Howe reported was a Grade 3 AC joint sprain of his throwing shoulder, news I confirmed.

Tennessee Titans quarterback Cam Ward, right, leaves the field after the team's loss in an NFL football game against the Jacksonville Jaguars, Sunday, Jan. 4, 2026, in Jacksonville, Fla. (AP Photo/Phelan M. Ebenhack)
Cam Ward leaves the field hurt after the Titans loss to the Jaguars/ ASSOCIATED PRESS

The team had been more optimistic not long before.

That’s a setback for a quarterback who needed to take a break and then get to work under the guidelines of his new coach, coordinator and quarterback coach but now will likely be sidelined for about three months.

But the injury varies between quarterbacks and can come with complications, as it did for Will Levis.

The team said he felt things had not settled down after a rehab program and he elected just before camp started last summer to have season-ending shoulder surgery.

That was reportedly a Grade 2 shoulder sprain that he later re-aggravated. And it felt partly political as he did not do well coping with a demotion to second-string after the team drafted Ward.

With him, there will be a lot of waiting and a lot of seeking certainty, inside the building and out.

Overall, the season finale was a disaster in line with the worst days of an overall miserable season that lands the team another high pick in the draft and leaves an incoming coach with an extreme assignment.

He’ll inherit a thin roster in need of massive help, with big salary cap dollars for the team to spend in free agency and a draft that must deliver impact talent. He’ll also need a big jump from Ward, who made some strides in his rookie year but was insufficient mechanically, inconsistent deep and in need of a great deal of work.

Ward had played every snap of his rookie season, but when the Titans sent him to the right corner of the end zone for a 7-yard scoring run in the first quarter, he suffered an injury to his throwing shoulder as Foyesade Oluokun landed on him. Ward's season ended unceremoniously.

I had no beef at all with Ward being in the lineup or being asked to run on the play.

“It’s brutal for him,” Brandon Allen said. “I don’t know the severity of it or any of that yet. He’s in good spirits though. I think he’s optimistic about it and he’ll be fine coming back.”

Allen showed how much the Titans need to upgrade the backup position. In his first action he was 17 of 30 for 72 yards, with a horrible pick-six and a 47.9 rating.

The Titans managed 194 net yards, converted four third downs in 14 chances and crossed midfield three times without points to get their season total to 42 such drives, per Nick Suss.

Their hopeless secondary will be an answer to a Titans trivia question, starting Micah Robinson and Darrell Baker at corner with Kemon Hall at nickel and Jerrick Reed and Sanoussi Kane at safety.

Trevor Lawrence heard MVP chants before he left the game after going 22 of 30 for 255 yards, three touchdowns and a 131.9 rating.

In this game, in addition to Ward, the Titans lost Kevin Zeitler and Corey Levin. They came in already without Calvin Ridley and Van Jefferson at receiver.

“It’s just the elephant in the room,” JC Latham said. “Lost Cam, lost Corey. We were already down Ridley and Van Jefferson. This is a professional football league so we’re going to fight our asses off every single play we got but I mean shoot, I just named five, six key guys on offense alone. That’s not even including the defensive guys that were out.

“You look to fight with everything you’ve got, but losing guys like that, you’re going to feel it.”

Jeffery Simmons has been with the team since 2019 and has experienced a lot better than this, the first season since realignment and the creation of the AFC South when the Titans have not won a game in the division.

Simmons got a sack of Lawrence to finish at 11 and stopped short of saying he was glad the season was over.

“To know that we’re going to be better next year, we can really focus on moving forward and getting this locker room and this team back where we want to be, I think that’s the relief that I do get,” he said.

“Do I hate it’s over with? Do I hate we’re not getting ready to go play in a playoff game? Yes. But nature of the business, we’re going home right now.”

So the good month before this? 

Well progress was important but seasons aren’t graded in pieces. They end with what they end with, and this one closed with a thin roster exposed, a rookie quarterback hurt and an incoming coach facing an assignment heavier than any late surge suggested.

The Titans didn’t lose a promising finish Sunday. They confirmed the scale of what still needs fixing in the offseason ahead and beyond.