![\"Cam](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Cam-Ward.jpg\")
Cam Ward celebrates after leading the Titans to a second quarter touchdown in their 29-7 preseason road loss to the Buccaneers on Aug. 9, 2025. Getty Images<\/p>\nTAMPA, Fla. \u2014 Cam Ward\u2019s pro debut was solid, if unspectacular.<\/p>\n
The first overall pick in this year\u2019s NFL draft completed five of eight passes for 67 yards, but more importantly was composed and looked comfortable running Tennessee\u2019s offense in the Titans\u2019 29-7 preseason-opening loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Saturday night.<\/p>\n
Two days after working against the Bucs defense in a joint practice at Tampa Bay\u2019s training facility, Ward played two offensive series, including an impressive second-quarter touchdown drive that gave the Titans a glimpse of what the franchise is counting on to be a bright future with him at quarterback.<\/p>\n
The 6-foot-2, 219-pound rookie completed three passes to Calvin Ridley to account for all but 15 yards on the 11-play, 65-yard TD drive Tony Pollard finished with a 1-yard scoring run. <\/p>\n
That came after the Tennessee offense spent more than 14 minutes of the opening quarter on the sideline while Tampa Bay was building a 10-0 lead and a whopping 143-5 advantage in total yardage while running 22 plays to Tennessee\u2019s 3.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought Cam played well, the two series that he got,\u201d Titans second-year coach Brian Callahan said. \u201cIt was kind of a weird first half with three possessions. He had one three and out, then came back with a touchdown drive. He started to feel comfortable and was begging to go back in, but that was not in the cards tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ward felt good about the abbreviated debut.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a lot guys first time playing together, but it felt good to come up with points,\u201d after failing to move the ball on the Titans\u2019 first possession,\u201d the rookie said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wanted to go out for a third (series) \u2026 but Coach Callahan has a plan for us,\u201d Ward conceded. \u201dWe\u2019ll stick to his plan.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cam Ward celebrates after leading the Titans to a second quarter touchdown in their 29-7 preseason road loss to the Buccaneers on Aug. 9, 2025. Getty Images<\/p>\n
Ward began his team\u2019s only scoring drive with a 27-yard completion over the middle to a wide-open Ridley and later led his target cutting across the middle again with a nice throw for a 13-yard gain into Tampa Bay territory. <\/p>\n
The rookie got away with his worst throw of the night when Bucs cornerback Josh Hayes made a nice adjustment on a sideline throw intended for receiver Elic Ayomanor but was unable to hang on to the ball for an interception.<\/p>\n
Ward, who had no turnovers and was not sacked, left the game after getting the Titans into the end zone. <\/p>\n
Backup Brandon Allen and third-stringer Tim Boyle, who threw an interception that was returned for a late touchdown, shared playing time the rest of the way.<\/p>\n
![\"Cam](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Cam-Ward-2.jpg\")
Cam Ward throws a pass during the Titans\u2019 preseason road loss to the Buccaneers. Kim Klement Neitzel-Imagn Images<\/p>\n
With Baker Mayfield and the rest of Tampa Bay\u2019s regulars either given the night off or playing sparingly, Kyle Trask started at quarterback for the Bucs. <\/p>\n
While he\u2019s listed No. 2 on the depth chart behind Mayfield, the team has signed 32-year-old Teddy Bridgewater as potential insurance for the four-time defending NFC South champions.<\/p>\n
Trask, who\u2019s thrown just 11 regular-season passes since entering the NFL as a second-round draft pick in 2021, led the team to Sean Tucker\u2019s 2-yard TD run and two field goals in the first half. <\/p>\n
He completed 12 of 16 passes for 129 yards without an interception before being replaced by rookie free agent Connor Bazelak.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought he played very well. He made some timely throws down the field. He was poised in the pocket,\u201d Bucs coach Todd Bowles said. \u201cPractice wasn\u2019t as sharp the past week, but he played well in the game.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA, Fla. \u2014 Cam Ward\u2019s pro debut was solid, if unspectacular. The first overall pick in this year\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":57444,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[559],"tags":[64,63,5372,593,85,1253],"class_list":["post-57443","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cam-ward","tag-nfl","tag-sports","tag-tennessee-titans"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57443","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57443"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57443\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57444"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}