{"id":34924,"date":"2025-07-30T18:08:08","date_gmt":"2025-07-30T18:08:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/34924\/"},"modified":"2025-07-30T18:08:08","modified_gmt":"2025-07-30T18:08:08","slug":"titans-rookie-cam-ward-admits-he-doesnt-feel-welcomed-into-nfl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/34924\/","title":{"rendered":"Titans rookie Cam Ward admits he doesn\u2019t feel \u2018welcomed\u2019 into NFL"},"content":{"rendered":"

Whenever you’re drafted No. 1 overall like Cam Ward was by the Tennessee Titans, there\u2019s bound to be extra hype\u2014especially when you\u2019re a quarterback.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s something the former Miami Hurricanes star knows comes with the territory in his rookie year and likely throughout his NFL career.<\/p>\n

Fortunately for Tennessee, Ward isn\u2019t letting that attention get to his head.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t care about the hype,\u201d Ward told The Athletic\u2019s Jeff Howe<\/a> on Tuesday after the Titans\u2019 first padded practice of training camp. \u201cI don\u2019t care about social media. All I care about is this 100-yard field. \u2026 At the end of the day, football takes care of everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite being the top pick, Ward has flown somewhat under the radar since the draft, and he senses that.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think I\u2019m being welcomed in [the league] with open arms,\u201d Ward said. \u201cI was the first pick. I\u2019m blessed to be that. But at the end of the day, there\u2019s a target on my back. There\u2019s a target on everyone\u2019s back in the league, but I\u2019m trying to prove myself to my teammates.\u201d<\/p>\n

Follow The Sporting News on WhatsApp<\/a><\/p>\n

Tuesday, however, served as a reminder of how steep the learning curve can be. It was Ward\u2019s toughest practice so far in camp<\/a>. He went 5-for-9 in 7-on-7 drills and just 6-of-17 in full-team periods. The rookie also threw three interceptions, two of which came during the final team segment.<\/p>\n

\u201cOverall, Ward had a tough day,\u201d ESPN\u2019s Turron Davenport reported. \u201cHe was late on deep passes even during routes on air. Several deep passes came up short, causing the receivers to wait for the ball. Ward stressed the importance of timing being key to his transition to the NFL. Tuesday was a case of the timing not being where it should be.\u201d<\/p>\n

These kinds of hiccups are to be expected from a rookie, and there\u2019s no need to panic just yet. But sooner or later, Ward is going to have to deliver in a big way for a Titans franchise that\u2019s been chasing stability at quarterback for years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Whenever you’re drafted No. 1 overall like Cam Ward was by the Tennessee Titans, there\u2019s bound to be…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":34925,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[436],"tags":[49,48,514,82],"class_list":["post-34924","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34924","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34924"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34924\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34925"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}