{"id":678122,"date":"2026-05-18T06:50:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-18T06:50:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/678122\/"},"modified":"2026-05-18T06:50:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T06:50:08","slug":"the-nfl-is-ignoring-titans-qb-cam-ward-harder-than-any-first-overall-pick-quarterback-in-almost-40-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/678122\/","title":{"rendered":"The NFL is ignoring Titans QB Cam Ward harder than any first overall pick quarterback in almost 40 years"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Cam Ward is about to do two years of NFL service without ever getting a primetime feature. As a former first overall draft pick, that makes him the first to do so since the 80\u2019s.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">This fall will be Cam Ward\u2019s second NFL season. If he manages to stay healthy all year, he\u2019ll make his 34th start. And that means, thanks to the NFL\u2019s schedule makers passing over his Titans for a second consecutive year, he won\u2019t make his primetime debut until at least his 35th career start.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Perhaps Tennessee goes full 2025 <a class=\"link \" href=\"https:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/nfl\/teams\/new-england\/\" data-i13n=\"sec:content-canvas;subsec:anchor_text;elm:context_link\" data-ylk=\"slk:New England Patriots;sec:content-canvas;subsec:anchor_text;elm:context_link;itc:0\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;New England Patriots&quot;,&quot;ySubModuleName&quot;:&quot;anchor_text&quot;,&quot;yHasCommerce&quot;:false}\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">New England Patriots<\/a>, become the fresh faces of the league overnight, and get flexed into primetime down the stretch. But any team can do that in-season; this is about what the league decides it wants to see before the bullets start flying.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">If you\u2019re wondering if a first overall QB has ever gone two seasons into his career without<\/p>\n<p>Cam Ward is first 1st overall QB to go two seasons without primetime debut since Testaverde<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">1993: Drew Bledsoe, New England Patriots<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">2007: JaMarcus Russell, Oakland Raiders<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">2025: Cam Ward, Tennessee Titans<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cam Ward is about to do two years of NFL service without ever getting a primetime feature. As&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":678123,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[559],"tags":[61658,1258,1276,64,63,6576,5351,1268,112857,5372,1257,290743,1248,1252,1238,3055,31388,2755,1255,1246,23167,1237,5375,6585,629,5380,1263,6588,61179,1231,593,8109,72841,85,1247,1253,326842,6578,2957],"class_list":["post-678122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-andrew-luck","tag-arizona-cardinals","tag-atlanta-falcons","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-baker-mayfield","tag-bryce-young","tag-caleb-williams","tag-cam-newton","tag-cam-ward","tag-carolina-panthers","tag-carson-palmer","tag-chicago-bears","tag-cincinnati-bengals","tag-cleveland-browns","tag-detroit-lions","tag-eli-manning","tag-florida","tag-houston-texans","tag-indianapolis-colts","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-jaguars","tag-jameis-winston","tag-jared-goff","tag-joe-burrow","tag-kyler-murray","tag-los-angeles-rams","tag-matthew-stafford","tag-michael-vick","tag-new-england-patriots","tag-nfl","tag-peyton-manning","tag-sam-bradford","tag-sports","tag-tampa-bay-buccaneers","tag-tennessee-titans","tag-testaverde","tag-trevor-lawrence","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/678122","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=678122"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/678122\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/678123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=678122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=678122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=678122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}