Cam Ward Camp Update — August 31: The Quarterback Room Cut to Two
2026 NFL Season · Monday, Aug 31
The Titans waived Will Levis and Hendon Hooker at Sunday's cutdown, keeping only Cam Ward and Mitchell Trubisky, and both waived quarterbacks went unclaimed Monday. Ward's own week held the summer's pattern: eight of twelve for sixty-nine yards against Seattle, twenty-one of thirty-four with three touchdowns in the joint practice.
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The Titans cut their quarterback room in half on Sunday. Will Levis, a second-round pick in 20 23, was waived, per Ian Rapoport of NFL Network, and so was Hendon Hooker, leaving only Cam Ward and Mitchell Trubisky on the initial 53, per Josh Alper at Pro Football Talk — Trubisky having won the backup job over Levis, per Jim Wyatt at the team's website. Justin Melo at Titans Sized reported the team could not get even a late-round pick in trade for Levis before waiving him. And by Monday the story had finished: both quarterbacks went unclaimed on waivers and are now free agents, part of a league-wide day in which 19 quarterbacks were waived Sunday, per an unbylined wire item carried Monday at The Ticket. The Titans anticipate signing a third quarterback to the practice squad, per Alper — an expectation, not a transaction, and as of this writing none has been reported.
So the job is Ward's without an asterisk, and the open question about him is unchanged: which Ward shows up when the ball is live. The August 20-third game against Seattle — the reconciliation attempt our last episode pointed at — did not reconcile anything. Tennessee won 19 to 16, but Ward's three first-quarter series produced three points on eight-of-12 passing for 69 yards, and Kevin Patra at NFL.com charted all eight completions within 10 yards of the line, with Ward going oh-for-four on throws of 10-plus air yards. Ward's own words, per Patra: "I think just missed opportunities on some plays... just got to be better down the field as a whole." Four days later the practice column answered right on schedule: 21 of 34 with three touchdowns and an interception in the joint practice against the Bears, per Wyatt's hand count, with rookie Carnell Tate repeatedly targeted for seven catches and two scores. Ward then sat the finale, with Robert Saleh explaining the team had overshot its projected camp reps by 50 or 60 and calling camp very productive, per Wyatt. In front of him, rookie Fernando Carmona won the starting right guard job while Cordell Volson was released, per Melo.
One correction from our own file: the August 20-third episode described the room behind Ward as Trubisky and Levis. It was a four-man room — Hendon Hooker had been signed back in April, per the Pro Football Rumors archive, and he threw eight passes in the finale, per Wyatt. The room we undercounted is now, either way, a two-man room.
Back in June we framed Ward's second season as a bet Tennessee spent an entire offseason building, without underwriting the leap or fading it — and the practice-versus-game split we've tracked all summer is still wide open, a sharp practice column against a downfield blank in the games. The cutdown just removed every alternative to finding out. We'll check back in as Week One takes shape.
_Data via nflverse._
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