The Titans’ upcoming Week 10 contest with the Jaguars pits two franchises going in completely different directions against each other.

At 1-7, the Titans made the tough decision to part ways with franchise staples DT Jeffery Simmons and S Amani Hooker in exchange for premium draft capital in hopes of eventually building a more competitive roster sometime in the near future.

Meanwhile, with the Jaguars currently sitting atop the AFC South at 6-2, decided to go all in with a plethora of deadline deals, acquiring DT Jordan Davis from the Eagles, DT Davon Godchaux from the Saints, and S Jessie Bates from the Falcons.

Pair that with the bold move the Jags made a few years back to acquire CB/WR Travis Hunter in the draft, and it’s clear this is a franchise under GM James Gladstone that isn’t afraid to take some big swings in order to get better.

Moves like the ones Jacksonville has made are simply unrealistic for Tennessee at the moment. Mainly because QB Trevor Lawrence has established himself as a true franchise quarterback for the Jaguars, while QB Cam Ward is still trying to figure things out.

However, it wasn’t always that way. In fact, the two of them had relatively similar starts to their career. 

Ward and Lawrence share compelling similarities

People tend to forget that Lawrence was only 5-20 over his first 25 starts, which is just one more win than Ward has produced through his first 25 starts (4-21). During that time, the Clemson product dealt with a lot of the same things Ward is currently dealing with. Jags head coach Liam Coen wasn't afraid to praise Ward ahead of playing against him this week:

Lawrence was surrounded by lackluster talent, a revolving door of coaches, and an irate fanbase that was running out of patience largely due to some of the issues that predated their arrival in actuality.

While this was certainly a rough period for everybody involved, their patience eventually paid off. Things finally clicked for Lawrence once he found some stability in HC Liam Coen, while Gladstone’s bold moves added premier talent for the team to work with. The Jags have now completely turned things around, going 19-6 over his last 25 starts with Lawrence leading the way.

Titans GM Mike Borgonzi and HC Robert Saleh are hoping a similar thing happens in Tennessee. Ward isn’t blameless by any means, but you could argue he hasn’t exactly been set up to succeed as much as he should’ve been.

The Titans are hoping to start changing that reality now that they have a ton of resources at their disposal, including five top-70 picks (in all likelihood) in next April’s draft, along with two first-rounders in 2028.

Tennessee has put itself in a position where it can target premium talent at premium positions throughout the first two days of the event. Trying to rebuild a roster as depleted of talent as the Titans were prior to Borgonzi’s arrival with just one pick in each round proved to be unrealistic.

This team had far too many holes to fix, and not enough picks to do it, which forced them to overpay for average-at-best talent in free agency. Throw in the fact that not all picks pan out, and that’s how this team finds itself in the position they’re still in today despite multiple years of “rebuilding”.

How Cam Ward controls the Titans' reality... for better or worse

These recent trades will allow the Titans to try to fill at least five positions with top-70 players, including a true blue-chip talent at the top of round one — rumor has it one of WR Carnell Tate’s former teammates isn't half bad. We'll see where WR Jeremiah Smith lands.

But for any of this to matter, the Titans desperately need Ward to follow a similar trajectory as Lawrence’s. Unfortunately, this year is all but over, but that doesn’t mean the groundwork towards getting this thing turned around can’t be set over the final nine games.

The harsh reality is that the Titans probably won’t be any closer to getting this turned around unless Ward finally reaches his full potential.

For everybody’s sake, let’s hope that ends up being the case. And who knows, if everything works out well, maybe a year or two from now we see the Titans evolve into the aggressive franchise that buys players from bad teams instead of being the one on the selling end.