Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Tennessee Titans Cam Ward PERFECT START to Summer | Brian Callahan Building IDEAL SCHEME for Cam

Starting point is 00:00:00 Tennessee Titans rookie quarterback Cam Ward is off to a perfect start, and I'll explain why on today's edition of Locked on Titans. You are Locked on Titans, your daily Tennessee Titans podcast, part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. Welcome to the Locked On Titans podcast. I am your host, Tyler Rollin Titans fans on today's show. We're going to take a look at why Cam Ward is off to a perfect start for the Tennessee Titans. We're going to talk about Brian Callahan's comments and Cam Ward's comments at Rookie Minicamp, how Brian Callahan talked about Cam Ward's head start, Cam talked about the mechanics, and we're going to talk about what the perfect scheme for Cam Ward would look like and why the Titans are already on

Starting point is 00:00:53 their way. Before we dive into all of that, do want to thank you for making Locked on Titans your first listen each and every day. Remember, Monday through Friday, Tennessee Titans content all year round, always for free. You're not going to beat that anywhere else. Make sure that you get subscribed. Stay subscribed.

Starting point is 00:01:09 It's your team every day. Speaking of every day, shout out to my every dayers out there. Tune in Monday through Friday. Couldn't do it without you guys. If you aren't an every dayer, you need to be one. The schedule comes out on Wednesday. I'm going to be doing a schedule preview with some of the things that I hope to see on the Titans schedule on tomorrow's show. Then I'm

Starting point is 00:01:29 gonna be going live immediately after the schedule comes out and we're gonna go game by game and talk about whether I think the Tennessee Titans will win each of those games. So can't wait to dive into all the schedule content with you guys over the next few days. Again make sure that you get subscribed, stay subscribed. It's your team every day. But with that being said, we do got to talk about why I think Cam Ward has had a perfect start to his Tennessee Titans career up to this point. Number one, I just want to point out as a Tennessee Titans fan who's seen it all and been through it all,

Starting point is 00:02:03 I remember Traylon Burks not making it through rookie camp. I remember Malik Willis having struggles at rookie camp. I remember Will Levis coming in and them saying Malik Willis is QB2 and Will Levis is QB3, even though they traded up in the beginning of the second round, which is almost a first round pick to get him. Like, I remember all of these things. And look, Will Levis being named

Starting point is 00:02:26 quarterback three and eventually becoming quarterback two doesn't mean that it was a bad start for him per se, but it was just, it just wasn't clean. It wasn't easy. It wasn't fun. It wasn't Mike Vrabel was playing all those games. And last I remind you, think about Isaiah Wilson. Not a perfect start. Think about Caleb Farley.

Starting point is 00:02:46 Not ready to go right away. Like, we have seen countless bad starts that J.C. Latham last year being a leader, showing up, being on the field, doing everything asked, good in the interviews, look like a professional, talk like a professional. Like, J.C. Latham was a great example of a perfect start last year and it led to a pretty good season for J.C. Latham and I think he's gonna take even a bigger leap here. But Cam Ward's start has been so

Starting point is 00:03:12 much better than all those things that we just talked about. You know what I mean? Like all the examples that I gave you. So has he done a lot? Has a lot happened? No. But the fact that we don't have a lot of bad stuff to talk about. Look at Mason Graham for the Cleveland Browns. He's throwing up, puking, can't even make it through rookie mini camp with the Browns. We weren't dealing with that with Tam Ward. He's calm, he's collected, he's professional, he did a good job out on the field. Like, it may not be a lot. I'm not, the bar is not super high to clear here, but if you're like me and you've been a Tennessee Titans fan for a long time,

Starting point is 00:03:47 that super low bar to rookie mini camp has not been passed by so many different people. So this is a perfect start for Cam Ward to get settled, get ready to go, be out there, doing his job. He just looks the part. And to me, again, I know that it's a low bar we're not asking for a lot but if you're a real Titans fan you've really been in these trenches then you know exactly how bad it can go for rookies and why sometimes rookie mini camp is a sign that this player is not going to be what we hoped he would be so sometimes you got to take the signs when they're right in front of you and I think this is a sign of Cam Cam Ward start that we should all be excited about.

Starting point is 00:04:26 But do want to go into some of the quotes here from the weekend again, that kind of demonstrate what I'm talking about. And Brian Callahan had Cam Ward ready to go even before he got drafted. Callahan said, hey, we still use all of our allowable communications with him that we had. So even after they had decided that he was their quarterback, before the draft, they still kept having Zoom meetings with him and stuff. And Callahan went on to say this, even once you have the draft, there are things that

Starting point is 00:05:00 you can give him from that point out too. There's a lot of Zoom meetings that can occur. You're allowed to meet with those guys even though they're not in your building. You're allowed to use this time. He's got a bit of a head start. No doubt about that. That will be beneficial for him at the end of the day. It comes down to what you do when you're out here and how quickly you pick it up.

Starting point is 00:05:22 So Callahan's even saying there, Cam Ward had a head start because they knew they were picking him number one overall. So even before the draft, they were able to get him ready in different ways. And then when the draft happens, you're able to get him ready even more even though rookie minicamp didn't happen for a couple of weeks.

Starting point is 00:05:39 So it's not like Cam Ward was just coming out there with the Titans for the first time with no familiarity. And Cam Ward doubled down on that. He talked about when he got the playbook and how he studies. Is he just studying what? The coaches are telling him to study. Is he going ahead? He said quote, it's a little bit of both. I like to freelance on my own, get deep into the playbook, but every day we're running this play, this play, so they're not really pushing everything on me at once at the end of the day

Starting point is 00:06:06 We got to go through installs and get better at little things. I'll continue to look ahead I'll continue to prepare like I know I can prepare. It's gonna be good I had it I had the playbook right after I was drafted maybe a month three weeks I would say I don't know the whole playbook yet, but the majority to go play a game. So again, the Tennessee Titans, knowing that they were going to take Cam Ward, the pre-draft process, once he was drafted, getting him the information, getting him the playbook, and then Cam Ward's own ability to look ahead. Yeah, the teacher says we're reading chapters one through three today.

Starting point is 00:06:42 But I might read to chapter four or five if I really want to get a good head start. So I like that the Titans have set Cam Ward up for success and like Brian Callahan said, he's had a head start. He's ahead of the game here. And Brian Callahan, despite him knowing the playbook, despite him saying that he is ready to play a game, he knows the playbook that well.

Starting point is 00:07:03 Brian Callahan smartly though, smartly, is still taking his time. Callahan said, so far so good on the install of the playbook. Starting from square one, just like you do with all young players. We start over every year anyways, you never take for granted the steps you have to take to start over and teach the offense from square one again. You teach how to get in the huddle, the cadence, all the basics from start to finish. You restart the process every year. That's how we approach this. This is the beginning install for these guys. This is the beginning of the offensive instruction for cam, how we operate, how we operate

Starting point is 00:07:39 in the media room, how we operate in the install, how we operate on the field, all part of this process this weekend. We start from square one and we go from there. So overall with every quote that we've read and all the information that we've taken in over the weekend, Cam Ward was able to start early in his process. He is working late and working past where he's at in the process to be ready. And the Tennessee Titans continue that despite those good things, they will be patient with Cam Ward and bring him along at the proper speed. I love everything I'm hearing right now from these guys about the plan so far and the plan to get here again. He started early, he's worked late, and they're gonna be patient and that right there is a recipe for success and proof

Starting point is 00:08:31 that Cam Ward has had as good of a start as he could possibly have to his Tennessee Titans career. Now if only the Tennessee Titans social media team would have a little bit of a better start to Cam Ward's career but that's a topic for a different day that I know a lot of Titans fans are frustrated about. But now Cam Ward is getting on the field with the Titans, what's that gonna look like? What are they working on there? How do you continue this perfect start? I'm gonna tell you, and I'm gonna let them tell you as well. Do wanna let you guys know that today's episode is brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook. The NBA playoffs are in full swing and every night delivers highlight-worthy performances,

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Starting point is 00:10:33 Cam Ward getting his playbook meeting with him before the draft after the draft the zoom meetings all that Moving into what the install process is gonna be but now when he's out on the field moving into what the install process is going to be. But now when he's out on the field, what are some of the things they're looking at? And the Titans, obviously a big topic of conversation anytime you draft a quarterback is their mechanics. So the Titans have some things that they want to work on with the mechanics, but according to Cam Ward,

Starting point is 00:10:58 you know, it's not a lot. It's not like the Tennessee Titans are looking to fundamentally change who he is. And he said, you know, they was all good with it. The ball gets where it needs to be. If the ball didn't get where it needed, then I think they would say something, but I haven't heard anything bad about it. Maintaining my base inside the pocket, not shuffling too much when I don't need to.

Starting point is 00:11:19 Also feeling the pocket, knowing how deep I need to get and also working on my drops. So Cam talked about like, hey, you know, they don't need to make these big fundamental changes to my mechanics and who I am and what I do and all of that. And then he also though mentioned that there are some things that he's working on, again, maintaining my base, that's having a good wide athletic base in the pocket so you're on

Starting point is 00:11:46 balance and you can throw the ball at any time. Talked about not shuffling too much which again we talked about Cam Warden the decision-making getting out of the pocket moving around all that he's got to be more comfortable in the pocket and correct that balance of playmaking to winning in the pocket and on time and in structure he's just got got to fine tune that balance at the next level. So talking about feeling the pocket, knowing how deep he needs to get, working on his drops. Another thing worth pointing out here is that Kim Ward is going to be doing certain drops that he's never had to do before, that he's never had to do. So that's going to be something that he's going to work on that isn't necessarily about throwing the football But it's the footwork and everything involved with playing quarterback And it's funny because Brian Callahan also talked about these mechanics and stuff and said that he didn't want to change Cam Ward's upper body mechanics and said that you could just tweak the footwork Brian Callahan said quote About changing his arm angles and his upper body stuff. No, I think all upper body mechanics are hard to mess with, are hard to mess around with. Those guys have done so many reps of those,

Starting point is 00:12:55 it's hard to change that. You could change lower body mechanics though, footwork, things of that nature. Some of the things that we have worked on, some footwork, under center stuff, simple things, things that are easy to adjust. For the most part, I see no issues with the arm angles and how he throws the football, and if there is, it usually goes back to their body positioning and their lower body work. Those are the things that we pay attention to. And if we can offer a tweak or a change, then we will. But I would say nothing all that dramatic at this point. They get to this level, they've done it that way a long time. Now, that just totally doubles down on everything we just talked about with

Starting point is 00:13:40 Cam Ward, that the stuff that they're trying to correct with Cam Ward, if anything, are just little tweaks to his lower body mechanics, different situations he hasn't been in, different drops that he has to do. Cam Ward talked about it as well. He talked about working on his drops and how, you know, the things are pretty similar. There's just different stuff and he's going to talk about it more later when he talks about, you know, the route concepts that he's used to and things like that. Now, most of the stuff is the same. There's just some little

Starting point is 00:14:09 changes with the footwork. So it's not these big overall changes to mechanics. And what I want to do here is to continue doubling down on this being a perfect start for Cam Ward. Brian Callahan just went through that quote and said, all upper body mechanics are hard to mess with. Those guys have done so many reps that it's hard to change that. And then at the end he said, I would say nothing all that dramatic at this point. They get to this level, they've done it that way a long time. So Brian Callahan is literally saying that upper body mechanics are something

Starting point is 00:14:46 that you don't really want to mess with too much. Tweaking the lower body mechanics is really how you could correct the issues. Well, let's hop in the time machine. Are you guys ready? I got the door open. Hop in. Let's get in the time machine and let's go back to last training camp and OTAs when Will Levis came back and if you remember because I do it was Will Levis's upper body mechanics that they were talking about that

Starting point is 00:15:15 he worked on over the summer. If you don't remember they talked about his elbow where his elbow was at they wanted his elbow higher or he was trying to throw with his elbow higher. I can't recall the top of my, I don't think it was a Brian Callahan mandated thing that he did. I think he went and worked with a private quarterback coach and what he worked on was his upper body mechanics and getting his elbow up more for his release. So I'm sorry, but I can't help but think, wow, Brian Callahan, this is another example of Brian Callahan, whether he intends to or not, kind of crapping on Will Levis. I mean, look, picking Cam Ward number one overall is enough of a statement in itself. I get that.

Starting point is 00:16:04 But for the head coach to say, hey, you don't really want to mess with the upper body mechanics. Guys have thrown it the way that they've thrown it for a long time. You really just want to focus on tweaking the lower body stuff. Cam Ward saying that the team didn't have any problem with his upper body mechanics, the arm angles, all that different stuff. And then just one year ago, literally one calendar year ago, the Tennessee Titans starting quarterback was having a big, huge upper body mechanic change, where he's trying to get his elbow higher before his release. Like, whoa, man. I just wonder behind the scenes. It just makes you wonder, like, how... Just, if we got Brian Callahan on Truth Serum, and we said, how much did you actually like Will Levis?

Starting point is 00:16:46 Did you take the coaching job because you just wanted to get a coaching job? Did you actually like Will Levis? Because like every time Brian, when Brian Callahan talked before the draft, remember he did that big interview with Easton Freeze and he went over a bunch of different stuff. He slammed Will Levis in my opinion, crapped all over him. of different stuff. He slammed Will Levis, in my opinion, crapped all over him. And then that was directly, and then there were some indirect things that he's talked about where he's just literally saying, I remember when he literally came out and said, you know, a lot of the stuff that Will Levis, you know, that we're trying to make to help Will is not stuff that I wanted to do. It wasn't exactly that I'm paraphrasing, but that was basically like, yeah, you know, we tried to add in some stuff that made Will comfortable. Like, yeah,

Starting point is 00:17:27 we had to do a bunch of stuff that I don't want to do as a coach that I don't like. You know, I just thought it's interesting to me that whether he's meaning to or not, every single time we hear from Brian Callahan, it's another example of how he wants nothing to do with Will Levis. Like it's just hilarious to me. We don't make these big upper body changes. Well, your starting quarterback literally last all season struggled in OTAs and struggled early in training camp. And I remember, I remember it's funny.

Starting point is 00:17:59 I got a comment on yesterday's video that says, Oh, you were hyping up Will Levis this time last year too. He was awesome. And it's like, no, he wasn't. Do you not remember? See, I do, because when I talk about things and I look at things and I get blowback for it and everybody's mad at me and yelling at me and calling me names on Twitter all day and blah, blah, blah, I remember that stuff. You know, I remember when I said, oh, this is not necessarily great that Will Levis is struggling so much at OTAs or at joint practices or blah blah blah blah blah. You know, he's working on mechanics and they'll get it together and, you know,

Starting point is 00:18:35 and everybody's like, oh, Will Levis was great this time last year too. Like, actually, if you go back, there were some reports that he wasn't. There were bad practices. And I remember when I report on those things or not report, I I'm not a reporter. Like I know some of you guys call me that, but I'm not a reporter. You know, I'm an analyst. I just analyze things. But when we were analyzing those reports coming out of practice about Will Levis struggling, and I was simply just talking the day's news and explaining to you Will Levis' struggles in practice. People would get mad at me that I was hating on Will Levis. So it's like, no, no, not really.

Starting point is 00:19:11 And I gave you examples earlier of Traylon Burks and Isaiah Wilson and Caleb Farley. And, you know, like, how many examples do we need to go through here? So it's not 100% every rookie looks awesome. I told you earlier, Mason Graham for the Browns was puking and could barely get through the workout. So, I know that this doesn't mean, like I said yesterday, that Cam Ward's a Hall of Famer, or any of these guys are gonna be incredible,

Starting point is 00:19:37 and it's guaranteed, but if you're saying everybody does great this time of year, that is simply not the case. It's simply not the case. It's simply not the case. So keep that in mind. But with that in mind, we've talked about Cam Ward's head start. We've talked about fixing the mechanics on the field. Now let's build the scheme out.

Starting point is 00:19:54 And there are comments about that as well. Titans fans, let's cap off today's edition of the locked on Titans podcast. Kind of going back through some of these comments from Brian Callahan and Kim Ward yesterday. We went over everything from rookie mini camp that we needed to discuss. Now I wanted to dive in a little bit more to this process with Cam Ward and what they're telling us about how he's coming along. We talked again about the head start Cam Ward got during the draft process. We talked about what they're working on out on the field with Cam Ward. Now I want to focus on how they build the scheme around Cam Ward going forward.

Starting point is 00:20:44 Now I did a scheme fit video and I put it out on draft night So it's been you know three weeks Uh since I put it out but you can go back and check that out on the tic tac titans film channel But cam ward is a perfect fit for what brian callahan wants to do two man route concepts to one side of the field A vertical route on the outside an out route from the slot side of the field, a vertical route on the outside, an out route from the slot, a smash concept with a sit down on the outside and a flag route, corner route from the slot. So many different little things, a quick sit down and then an in route or have the slot do a quick sit down route with an in route behind it to trick a linebacker. There are

Starting point is 00:21:19 so many little like two man manipulation patterns that Brian Callahan wants to use in his spread west coast system and then you pair that up with what they did at Miami. They had a ton of quick two-man concepts with a ton of Xavier Restrepo in the slot getting open on whip routes and outrouts and sit downs and stuff. That's why I'm so excited about Restrepo because he could continue doing the exact same things with Cam Warden they could just keep that going. But those two-man concepts on the front side of a play, and then if they're not there, you work one, two, and then the backside dig on three or the backside post on three.

Starting point is 00:21:56 I showed so many examples of that in my, like, my film video breakdown where I talked about Cam Ward being a scheme fit, and then to hear some of the things that we're getting from Cam Ward and Brian Callahan like Brian Callahan talked about the concepts that he ran at Miami and how you could basically add that into your system and Callahan said you know there's a lot of. He said, there is a lot of watching tape as far as what they've run. We have it all broken down. We have put it all in our terminology.

Starting point is 00:22:32 We know which concepts he's familiar with. We have discussions about those as we install them. At the end of the day, we try to teach our system the way we run it. And then we take input from Cam, and then he paused, and all the other quarterbacks for that matter, right, on different things they've done, how they've called it, how they've read it.

Starting point is 00:22:53 It's an ongoing conversation. That's what's unique about quarterback rooms. There's always room for a different viewpoint conversation or how they might have done something. All of that is part of those conversations and we will continue to see where we can make things easy, make things comfortable as much as possible. Brian Callahan just said some crazy stuff right there. They have logged and tracked every single play that Cam Ward ran at Miami. They have translated it from the Miami terminology that Mario Cristobal uses to the terminology that they use within their offense. They know

Starting point is 00:23:35 which concepts he's most familiar with and then we have discussions about those as we install them. So as they're installing their version of the play, Brian Callahan and Bo Hardagry, the quarterback coach, can literally look at Cam Warden and say, hey, at Miami, you called it this. We call it this. It's translation. Playbooks are like languages. It's like learning Spanish. You know what I mean? Like chicken pollo. You know what I mean? Like, chicken poyo. You know what I mean? Like, that's a silly example, of course, but it makes sense. It would be like, Cam, you guys called this chicken here, we call it poyo. It's that simple, you know? So, I love that they have done such a deep dive into what Cam Ward has done in college that they know literally down to the numbers and percentages

Starting point is 00:24:29 which concepts within the offense he's most familiar with and then can translate that to him. And that translation for, hey, you did this, it's called this, hey, it's called this, but it's the same thing. That will give him even more of it. It's like in Hot Wheels, where you have the little skippers that make your car go even faster.

Starting point is 00:24:49 You know what I mean? Or like a turbo in Crash Bandicoot or something like that, or Mario Kart, you know? It's like those little easy translations for Cam Ward and making it so simple just allows him to hit that turbo ramp, it allows him to get that speed boost to hit that nausea button, you you know and jump forward in the process even more and Cam even acknowledged this and it goes back to the footwork thing he

Starting point is 00:25:12 said same route concepts a little bit different footwork that all comes with time and preparation I got two good coaches who continue to motivate me every day and coach Callahan and coach Bo, Bo Hardagry, the quarterback coach. I think I got a good group of guys around me as well and when I get the chance to meet the other quarterbacks in person, they'll continue to motivate me. I'll motivate them. I'm just ready to put the pads on and get some time with other vets when they get out here on Monday. And think, Monday, there's a Titans team activity and team activities that we don't even get to see. Cam Ward finally met the vets and all that. It actually happened. Now they're not

Starting point is 00:25:53 going to put pads on until much later in the summer when we get through the first week of training camp into the second week. So, you know, we'll have to wait a little bit for that. But You know, I'll have to wait a little bit for that, but again, those two-man concepts with backside digs, run vertical routes with switch vertical concepts, which is like a wheel route from the slot and a post route from the outside guy on, but you know, deep crossing routes like Chim Dike was so good at at Florida and Cam Ward threw so well at Miami. It all fits together. These things that Brian Callahan wants to do anyway, quick timing passing, west coast concepts, married with modernization. Like it's a spread west coast system

Starting point is 00:26:31 with elements of that old school west coast stuff, like the quick timing passing and all that stuff, but with the modern aspects of shotgun spread. And that's exactly what Cam Ward was doing in college. So knowing that they have done the extensive work on Cam in college and what he was running and able to translate that and Cam Ward acknowledging, yeah, it's a lot of the same concepts,

Starting point is 00:26:53 just a little bit different footwork and the timing of the plays and stuff like that. Like it's already such an easy fit. It's already such an easy fit, you know? And that is part of the main theme that I've had this entire episode and that's, Cam Ward is off to a perfect start. Everything about the preparation for him up to this moment has been ideal and perfect. Does that mean that he'll be great right away and this and that? No. But hey, it's better than things going bad, right?

Starting point is 00:27:26 I would rather things go as good as they can go over going back. So not gonna look the gift horse in the mouth on this one. I'm just gonna be happy about where things have gone so far. And I hope you guys are too. And speaking of that, we'll know a lot more about where things might go once we get the schedule on Wednesday night.

Starting point is 00:27:44 I'm gonna be going live on Wednesday night. I'm going to be going live on Wednesday night at about 8, 8 15 PM Eastern to break down the Titan schedule. I'm going to have more schedule reaction the next day. And I'm going to have a schedule preview show for you guys tomorrow where I go over the things that I want for the Tennessee Titans on this schedule. We better have a later buy this year. I'm so sick of having early buy weeks. Sick of it. So better not be early this year. But with that being said, that's going to do it for me today, folks. As always, I am your host, Tyler Rollin, and this was Locked on Titans. Thanks for watching guys!

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Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Tennessee Titans Cam Ward PERFECT START to Summer | Brian Callahan Building IDEAL SCHEME for Cam

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