Where are you on Ward at this point?

[NashvilleNinja]

52 minutes ago, OILERMAN said:

Judging him completely on his own I thought he'd be better. He's left too many plays on the field when the play was there. He's played too fast and rushed things. He's bailed the pocket and created his own pressure. As bad as the supporting cast has been he's been equally bad too often. 

 

I do think he's improved the last month or so. 

 

He's clearly dedicated and will work to improve. Everything is also correctable. 

 

In his defense.....

 

You cannot be in a worse position as a rookie QB than he's been in. The coaching staff was a disaster and the roster make up is terrible. Callahan proved to be totally incompetent. They are a 3 WR team with terrible WRs. Lockett was washed and Ridley dropped too many passes and missed a ton of time. They have two pass catching TEs who can't block well and Pollard is washed. They have the 32nd ranked run offense. 

 

Cam Ward has also possibly faced the toughest defensive opponents a rookie QB has ever faced. 

 

He's played 5 games against the top 5 pass defenses(Texans, Chargers, Denver and Rams) in the league. The Texans are #1 and he's faced them twice and the Chargers are #2. Seattle is up this week at #7 and the Jags are #8 and the Colts are #9(twice). 

 

That's a murders row. Darnold is having an MVP type season and played the Texans and Rams and posted 73 and 45 passer ratings. 

 

No QB in the league would be having a good season in this situation.

 

Give him a good coach in a more QB friendly offense and improve the supporting cast. If he plays poorly next year it's time to worry. 

 

Ward has been compared a lot to Mahomes, but Mahomes sat his first year on a playoff-ready team with an already-proven good HC. Ward has played every snap of his first year on one of the worst teams in the NFL over the last 5-10 years with a HC who was fired only a month or so into the season. I'd like to see how good Mahomes would've been in a similar situation.

[Callidus]

27 minutes ago, titanruss said:

 

I'd been thinking this for a while. Has a rookie QB starter ever had the most difficult SOS? This is probably getting close to a record for both defensive ranks and SOS for a 1st year rookie starter. 
 

Im sure a rookie qb has, or atleast been up at the top. Has a number 1 overall pick qb? That seems unlikely. The stars really did have to align for our sos to be so high. 

[titanruss]

1 hour ago, Callidus said:

Im sure a rookie qb has, or atleast been up at the top. Has a number 1 overall pick qb? That seems unlikely. The stars really did have to align for our sos to be so high. 

 

Probably someone out there but I think the odds are lower than we think. Typically first round QBs have an easier schedule because their teams sucked ass. 

[chef]

With @OILERMAN on general thoughts.  He hasn't been perfect, but how could he have been?  There have been some worrying traits that carried over from college which many here seem to write off as "correctable" though I've been around long enough to have seen that story not play out as well as hoped.

 

But the positive traits are very positive: leadership even as a rookie, work ethic, solid attitude, seems to process the field quickly, can throw a very accurate and catchable ball with touch, (too?) calm in the pocket, confident.

 

I believe he will eventually rack up a number of game winning drives especially as even with this as an improved team we'll be playing tight games from behind well before we starting blowing anyone out.  Bit McNair like in that regard, though his anti-scrambling attitude will keep him a very separate entity in many ways.  And likely extend his career.  Probably the least wanna scramble QB we've had since Hass/KFC. 

[japan]

As has been pointed out before, Ward is in the worst situation possible for a rookie QB.

[Callidus]

10 minutes ago, titanruss said:

 

Probably someone out there but I think the odds are lower than we think. Typically first round QBs have an easier schedule because their teams sucked ass. 

Ya, a few get drafted later in the first and end up with harder schedules. Which was why i split the first overall pick on its own. 

[TheChosenTitan]

1 hour ago, titanruss said:

 

I'd been thinking this for a while. Has a rookie QB starter ever had the most difficult SOS? This is probably getting close to a record for both defensive ranks and SOS for a 1st year rookie starter. 
 

Just our luck

[TeamRamrod]

Pretty glowing praise from Nate Tice for Cam at 1:17:50. I respect Nate’s opinions on football more than just about anyone else in football media. Really recommend watching. 

Edited November 19, 2025 by TeamRamrod

[Callidus]

37 minutes ago, TeamRamrod said:

Pretty glowing praise from Nate Tice for Cam at 1:17:50. I respect Nate’s opinions on football more than just about anyone else in football media. Really recommend watching. 

He had me at the titans will likely have the number 1 pick next year. 

[MadMax]

7 hours ago, Somedude said:

 No rookie QB would thrive in this. 

FIFY

[TeamRamrod]

https://x.com/nate_tice/status/1990900876698104192?s=46
 

also a thread from Nate talking about some throws 

[Mythos27]

I'm actually more sold on him than I was at the time we drafted him but at the same time he's shown that some of the things I didn't like about his game have followed him into the NFL and I don't think they're are easy to correct as some do. If he was looking like this with a fully functioning roster behind him I'd be really concerned but it seems very apparent to me that the rest of the team being so bad is the main reason "bad Cam" shows up so much. If we can manage to get this roster back to at least average I think we're cooking with gas.

Edited November 19, 2025 by Mythos27

[AvgJoe]

8 minutes ago, Mythos27 said:

I'm actually more sold on him than I was at the time we drafted him but at the same time he's shown that some of the things I didn't like about his game have followed him into the NFL and I don't think there are easy to correct as some do. If he was looking like this with a fully functioning roster behind him I'd be really concerned but it seems very apparent to me that the rest of the team being so bad is the main reason "bad Cam" shows up so much. If we can manage to get this roster back to at least average I think we're cooking with gas.

He’s pressing because he is sick of losing and it’s causing decisions like holding onto it too long to happen. I cannot wait for him to have a competent HC and offensive staff

[bizzyeddie]

I got no idea what he will turn out to be.  I think at the least he will be a top 10 ish QB in the league and will make this team competitive.

I'm just happy he's still healthy or maybe I should say he seems durable.

Stay healthy and keep plugging away.

 

Other than that I would say @OILERMAN pretty much nailed with his post.

Edited November 19, 2025 by bizzyeddie

[scine09]

I think some of the throws that people might deem as "misses" need to be taken in context.  Yeah, he's throwing too far for receivers he's never played with and/or don't have the speed he's expecting.  There was one to Kinsey (not the throw that everyone's talking about, but one later in the game) where it seemed like he led Kinsey too far.  It looked like that I would assume because Kinsey's just too slow and Ward is expecting him to be somewhere that he's not.  There was another one to Ayomanor where he appeared to lead him too much.  Again, I don't know if Ayomanor just can't get to the ball quickly enough.  I think once they're able to fix the WR room (to me Dike is the only long-term keeper currently on the roster) things will be different.  But right now the guy really has little hope of doing much in terms of production.  His biggest threats are his tight ends.  Van Jefferson's his #1 WR.  That should tell you something.