There’s no way to quantify what might happen when the Tennessee Titans and rookie quarterback Cam Ward come to Empower Field at Mile High in Denver for the regular season opener on September 7.
There is no way to quantify it because the moment Ward steps on the field to face the Denver Broncos, the 2025 No. 1 overall pick will be making history.
“The first thing on the list for the Denver Broncos’ defense when the regular season opens next Sunday is, well, a first,” ESPN’s Jeff Legwold wrote on August 30. “In front of a sellout Empower Field at Mile High crowd that will likely be in a full boil, the Broncos’ defense will open the 2025 campaign lining up across from Tennessee Titans quarterback Cam Ward, the No. 1 overall pick in April’s draft. It will be the first time since the 1970 NFL-AFL merger that the Broncos will begin a season against a rookie quarterback.”
Ward has been his own type of anomaly since he was selected by the Titans — perhaps the most understated, underhyped quarterback to go No. 1 overall in the last 30 years.
While Ward has been handed the keys to the Titans’ offense from Day One, that will bring him little relief when he faces arguably the NFL’s No. 1 defense. In 2024, the Broncos not only led the NFL with 63.0 sacks — 9 more than the Baltimore Ravens at No. 2 — but also produced the NFL Defensive Player of the Year in cornerback Patrick Surtain II.
Winding Path For Ward To No. 1 Overall Pick
There has never been a No. 1 overall pick who took a path to that moment quite like Ward, who signed a fully guaranteed 4-year, $48.83 million rookie contract.
Ward, 6-foot-2 and 219 pounds, played for 3 different colleges over 5 seasons from 2020 to 2024. Lightly recruited out of high school in West Columbia, Texas, Ward played for FCS Incarnate Word for his first 2 seasons, winning the Jerry Rice Award as the nation’s top FCS freshman in 2020 then winning Southland Conference Offensive Player of the Year honors in 2021 when he threw for 4,648 yards, 47 touchdowns and 10 interceptions in 13 games.
When Incarnate Word head coach Eric Morris left to become the offensive coordinator at Washington State, Ward followed and started for the Cougars in 2022 and 2023, throwing for 6,966 yards, 48 touchdowns and 16 interceptions in 2 seasons.
Ward left Washington State for an NIL deal at Miami worth an estimated $2.1 million for his final season in 2024, where he threw for 4,313 yards, 39 touchdowns and 7 interceptions in 13 games.
Broncos Have Relentless Defense On Tap
You don’t get to have the No. 1 pick without a truly horrendous run, which the Titans are on. Tennessee is coming off 3 consecutive losing seasons, including last season’s 3-14 record in head coach Brian Callahan’s first season.
According to BetMGM, the Titans have a projected over/under win total of just 5.5 wins for 2025 — the next-to-lowest number in the NFL ahead of just the New Orleans Saints and Cleveland Browns at 5.5 wins.
The Broncos, on the other hand, are coming off their first playoff appearance since 2015 and return 3 NFL All-Pro picks on the defensive side of the ball with Surtain, edge rusher and fellow NFL Defensive Player of the Year finalist Nik Bonitto, and defensive end Zach Allen.
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