Robert Saleh gives honest assessment of what went wrong with Cam Ward 1
Cam Ward completed five of his 12 attempts for 57 yards in Tennessee’s 19-13 preseason win at San Francisco on Thursday night, and by Friday, the criticism had already traveled past the quarterback and landed on the man hired to run the building.
The argument going around is that Robert Saleh was never the right fit in Tennessee, and that Mike McDaniel, who interviewed for the same job, was the coach Ward actually needed.
That was a reasonable thing to wonder about in January, and it is a strange thing to settle on the basis of what happened at Levi’s Stadium.
Tennessee Titans, Cam WardTennessee Titans, Cam Ward
Tennessee Titans quarterback Cam Ward (1) warms up during “Back Together Weekend” training camp practice at Nissan Stadium Saturday, July 26, 2025, in Nashville, Tenn.
The night began well. Ward opened by directing an 11-play, 95-yard drive from the Tennessee five-yard line, hitting Calvin Ridley for 18 along the way and handing the finish to Tony Pollard for a five-yard touchdown. On his next two possessions he went 3 of 8 for 23 yards and the Titans gained 15 total. He nearly threw an interception that a San Francisco defender dropped. None of that fits the description of a quarterback who arrived unprepared, since an unprepared quarterback does not open the game by moving the ball 95 yards.
Titans fans just never want to listen to me… I don’t care what anyone says, Robert Saleh was NOT the guy for Tennessee… if you watched last night, Cam Ward was CLEARLY not prepared to play, and against mostly backups… Mike McDaniel was the guy for Cam pic.twitter.com/1cLSa3GYgn
— John Frascella (Football) (@NFLFrascella) August 14, 2026
Saleh described the drop-off in mechanical terms rather than mental ones.
“It felt like his decisions were right,” Saleh said. “It just felt like he was a little sped up more than he had been in camp. It’s first time live bullets. It looked like his mechanics were a little more sped up than it has been, which is good because we can go correct it, which is what the preseason is for. I’m sure he’ll look back at it and see that the protection was pretty good and he could have went through his process a little bit better.”
Ward’s own summary pointed the same direction, at timing with his receivers rather than at anything schematic. He said the run game was sound, that the passing game needed cleaning up between himself and his receivers, and that he had to give them better chances to make plays.
Syndication: The TennesseanSyndication: The Tennessean
Tennessee Titans coach Robert Saleh speaks with the media before the Titans Rookie Camp Day 1 at Vanderbilt Health Football Center in Nashville, Tenn., Friday, May 1, 2026. © DENNY SIMMONS / THE TENNESSEAN / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
Why the McDaniel comparison sits on the wrong side of the ball
The coaching argument runs into a structural problem, which is that Saleh is a defensive coach who will call Tennessee’s defensive plays. The quarterback’s development sits with Brian Daboll, the first-year offensive coordinator who spent last season as head coach of the Giants and, before that, four years running Buffalo’s offense through Josh Allen’s development.
If Ward’s mechanics speed up under live rush, the person responsible for fixing that is Daboll, and Thursday was the first competitive rep of that partnership.
McDaniel’s record with quarterbacks is real, and the Titans clearly saw something in him, since he was among the 16 candidates general manager Mike Borgonzi interviewed before settling on Saleh’s five-year deal. He also went four seasons in Miami without winning a playoff game, was fired in January, and is now running the Chargers offense as a coordinator rather than leading a team of his own. Preferring him for Tennessee is defensible. Treating that preference as vindicated by one August series against backups is not.
The larger point is that the number worth watching is not 5 of 12 in a preseason game. Ward finished last season completing 59.8 percent of his throws, which ranked 31st among qualified passers, on a team that went 3-14.
The accuracy question predates Saleh, predates Daboll and was the reason Tennessee overhauled the entire coaching staff around him in the first place. One night of rushed footwork against San Francisco’s reserves does not resolve it in either direction.