What Cam Ward will have in common with Joe Burrow as a rookie

Long before the Tennessee Titans made Miami quarterback Cam Ward the first pick of the 2025 NFL Draft, Tennessee head coach Brian Callahan was serving as offensive coordinator with the Cincinnati Bengals when the Bengals grabbed Joe Burrow with the No. 1 selection of the 2020 draft. 

For a piece published on Tuesday morning, ESPN’s Turron Davenport explained how Callahan is having Ward follow in Burrow’s footsteps this spring. 

“Callahan said he plans to lean on his experience bringing Joe Burrow along from a No. 1 pick by the Cincinnati Bengals in 2020 to a legitimate franchise quarterback,” Davenport shared. “The NFL was under COVID-19 protocols when Burrow was selected, which caused most of the meetings to be virtual. Callahan went back and watched a lot of the meetings to gain perspective on Burrow’s development process and reflect on how the team’s approach to scheme implementation/game planning contributed to his success.”

Titans general manager Mike Borgonzi has said on multiple occasions that the plan is for Tennessee to “create competition” between Ward and 2023 second-round pick Will Levis leading up to the start of preseason play. Nevertheless, recent history shows that teams don’t wait to put quarterbacks chosen with No. 1 picks into their starting lineups. 

In 2020, the Bengals entered the regular season with Burrow atop their depth chart. He made 10 straight starts as a rookie but then went down with a torn ACL and MCL that prematurely ended his debut campaign. Despite that setback, Burrow is now widely regarded as one of the top overall players at the sport’s most important position. 

“It started with having Ward take them through what he saw on various concepts and why it yielded successful results,” Davenport added about how Callahan is trying to make the Miami product “comfortable” ahead of mandatory minicamp workouts. “If it was a new concept, Callahan incorporated that into the offense. Then they’ll add on from there.”

There’s no rush for Callahan to name a Week 1 QB1 as Ward continues to learn an offense he’ll run at some point soon. The hope among Callahan and Co. is that Ward will make this decision easy by emerging as the clear best player in Tennessee’s quarterback room just as Burrow did with the Bengals before the opening weekend of the 2020 season arrived.