Cam Ward’s preseason film for the Titans was straight-up startling, showing an astonishing lack of accuracy and, honestly, an astonishing lack of… everything. While the preseason is often a deeply deceitful beast, this kind of showing from the second-year quarterback has to raise some serious alarms, even if the “calamity won’t translate to the regular season.”
Ty Simpson’s ‘Easy Mode’ Preseason Start
Contrast that with Rams rookie Ty Simpson, the first-round quarterback, who had a start described as “hot” but “nice and safe,” almost boring. The Rams played it super safe with Simpson, with 84% of his passes traveling 15 yards or fewer, and 72% coming in at 10 yards or less. In the first three quarters, we saw a ton of rollouts and passes behind the line of scrimmage. It was like Simpson barely needed to think, just operating the basics and letting everyone else do the work. Head coach Sean McVay even praised preseason playcaller Nate Scheelhaase, saying, “I thought the coaches did a really good job putting guys in good spots. I thought [Scheelhaase] called a really good game.” Look, preseason defenses are simple as can be, making life easier for everyone. In the final 10 minutes, Simpson and the coaches did ramp up the difficulty a bit, with some more intermediate throwing and targets toward the middle of the field. He only saw pressure on three of his 25 dropbacks and attempted a tight-window throw on 8% of his passes. It looked easy for Simpson because, well, it was very easy. The reaction has been unanimously positive, probably because of his statistics. I’m excited for his long-term prospects, but I’m not sure I saw anything outstanding. Still, at least he played in control and made the easy stuff look easy.
Ward’s Woes: A Preseason Disaster That’ll Haunt You
Now, back to Ward. That “easy stuff” that Simpson handled? Ward apparently couldn’t find it. I hate getting worked up about preseason film, but this was tough. There was just an astonishing lack of accuracy, an astonishing lack of… everything. Remember 2015 when Sam Bradford carved up preseason defenses with Chip Kelly for the Eagles? I thought that meant something. It didn’t. Bradford was a mess, and Kelly got fired. The same, but opposite, could be true for Ward, where this preseason calamity won’t translate to the regular season. But let’s look at the numbers because they contextualize my alarm. On 12 dropbacks, Ward attempted a tight-window throw on 8% of his passes. That’s the exact same percentage as Simpson, which should scream “easy day” for Ward, but it just didn’t play out that way on film.
Preseason is a liar, no doubt, but that kind of performance from Ward, even with the simple defenses out there, is tough to shake. Will he flip the script when games actually count? For Simpson, the question is whether all that “easy” play was just setting him up for something bigger or if he’s gonna hit a wall when defenses actually start trying. We’ll see how these guys look when the real football starts.
This article was created with AI assistance and published under Seattle On Tap’s editorial standards. See our Editorial Policy.
Originally reported by Fox Sports.
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