Observations from Titans practice, including Cam Ward's ongoing progress, Keldric Faulk's detailed coaching work and a few veterans who were not present.
By PAUL KUHARSKY
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The preface: These remain developmental days for Cam Ward.
It’s fair that he’s working through things; this is when that should happen in the spring of Year Two for a rookie who had a poor first season even as he improved late. He’s got two key new receivers and Carnell Tate was not on the field Tuesday. He’s learning Brian Daboll’s offense.
But yes, he should be better than he’s been in two practices this week.
For example, throwing midrange passes up the left side twice for Elic Ayomanor, he hit cornerback Keydrain Calligan, who hadn’t turned, in the back. There was ample room on both plays to arc the ball over the defender for a pretty basic completion. Ayomanor should have done better to come back to the ball and go over Calligan for the first one.
On a three-play stretch during seven-on-seven, when the ball should rarely hit the ground, he overthrew Gunnar Helm angling to the left sideline, he threw incomplete to Chim Dike’s feet and he watched Cody Barton tip a pass well in front of Wan’Dale Robinson.
By my count, he finished three for six in seven-on-seven when the ball should rarely hit the ground and 13 of 22 in team with the pick and late touchdowns in a high-pace move-the-ball period to Xavier Restrepo and Ayomanor. Totals: 13 for 22 with two scoring passes and a pick.
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I rarely track numbers, but a day after his play sparked a big conversation about his accuracy, my pen and pad just steered me there.
The pick came on his fourth throw of the day. He was intercepted by Micah Robinson, who has given up many plays to Carnell Tate, as he moved in front of Wan’Dale Robinson.
I’m not here to feed the people who do not understand team building or OTAs who are forecasting Mitch Trubisky winding up the starter or who think Will Levis didn’t get a fair shake. They both had crisper days, as Levis threw three TDs, including a bomb to Dike.
I had Mitch Trubisky 14-17 with a TD to Chim Dike.
— Paul Kuharsky (@PaulKuharskyNFL) June 9, 2026
Will Levis 14-16 with three TDs and a pick. Scores to Dike, Lance McCutcheon and Hank Beatty. #Titans
We have to wait on Ward.
But the NFL calendar offers these windows for progress reports. So I offer no proclamations. Just observations. I think it’s unreasonable to expect the best of him in the spring of his second year, given he wasn’t coming into the league as a great quarterback, given a shaky first year by him with a lousy surrounding cast and coaching.
There needs to be a significant jump this season. In what we’ve been allowed to see, there aren’t signs of it yet. But that doesn’t mean it can’t show up.
Minus Carnell Tate
Carnell Tate was out Tuesday, and a couple of guys did a nice job in his absence. Tate should be back Thursday, and if he's not he's sure to return for next week's minicamp.
Chim Dike caught touchdowns from both Mitch Trubisky and Will Levis and had a productive day. And while it started with a strong touchdown Monday, I feel as if Bryce Oliver is starting to make some noise. He drew a pass interference from an over-aggressive Kevin Winston that would have produced a chunk of yards and caught a ball from Trubisky on a play that would have been a sack, but kept going and was well-executed after a rollout left when the backup got the ball over a DB to the receiver.
Keldric Faulk Work
Rookies Keldric Faulk and Jackie Marshall and veteran Malik Herring were out early to work with assistant defensive line coach Tanzel Smart.
I love seeing a coach work on a super-specific piece of a player’s game.
Smart worked with them on their first step out of their stance, exaggerating how they raised and held up their back foot before springing forward off their front foot. First they went over a short hurdle and then he removed that.
Later, he had them punching his padded arm, and I noted that veteran Jacob Martin, who has a little warm-up routine of his own he does nearby, was offering pointers to Faulk.
Jacob Martin gives Keldric Faulk tips on hand work. #Titans pic.twitter.com/RrmuAZiMYI
— Paul Kuharsky (@PaulKuharskyNFL) June 9, 2026
Attendance Questions
Head coaches usually set a bit of a tone behind the scenes regarding attendance at voluntary practices like these, and Robert Saleh certainly has not flavored that conversation.
But I think we in the media have been too soft and quiet about it.
I know most guys are going to miss some. But I look at Derrick Henry in May and June of 2023. Henry was not in the habit of attending OTAs. Yet with new coordinator Tim Kelly taking over, he made it a priority to come to Nashville to be with the team to learn the new offense.
Jeffery Simmons has been around a bit -- he was here today as a non-participant. But I would have liked to have seen him follow the same example.
As for new guys? I don’t see why John Franklin-Myers and Cor’Dale Flott haven’t been around and why we’ve seen so little of Alontae Taylor. If they've got a good reason for not being here, they should let it be known. If they feel they are serving themselves better training on their own, well, they are supposed to be key team guys, and they got significant contracts.
The Titans have to prefer the approach of Wan'Dale Robinson and Daniel Bellinger, who've been omnipresent from what we can tell.
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