NFL's 3rd rookie QB showdown of the season pits Titans' Cam Ward vs. Saints' Tyler Shough

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — No rookie quarterback has started more games or thrown for more yards than the Tennessee Titans' Cam Ward. None of the eight rookie quarterbacks to start this season has more wins than Tyler Shough for the New Orleans Saints.

On Sunday, they meet in the third game this season featuring two rookie quarterbacks.

Ward beat Shedeur Sanders when the Titans topped Cleveland on Dec. 7, and Shough’s Saints beat the Jets 29-6 with Brady Cook last week.

“Got a chance to play against him in college,” Ward said of a shootout win last year when he was with Miami and Shough with Louisville. “Real good quarterback, throwing the ball, winning from the pocket, got a chance to be around him in a draft. So he’s a fun guy to watch. He’s someone that I’ve always rooted for. I’m excited that we get a chance to go against each other.”

The No. 1 overall draft pick is focused more on trying to string together consecutive home wins for the Titans (3-12) in their home finale after a 26-9 win over Kansas City last week. This franchise hasn't won back-to-back games since November 2022.

“Just to end off the home season the right way for the fans, to get us to win at home and be able to be explosive on offense and be able to stop people on defense,” Ward said.

The Saints started 1-7 and were 2-10 before winning three straight with Shough. The 40th pick overall out of Louisville now is 4-3 as a starter. Shough said he loves Ward as another quarterback who played at three different colleges before arriving in the NFL.

“He’s doing an incredible job this year, everything that he’s doing for that team playmaking wise,” Shough said. "So just a huge fan of his.”

Both quarterbacks have dealt with challenging seasons. The Titans fired coach Brian Callahan after six games, turning the team over to interim coach Mike McCoy. Kellen Moore is finishing his first season coaching the Saints, who also are rebuilding.

“We want to finish this thing off as well as we possibly can,” Moore said.

A quarterback switch hasn't been an issue for the Saints’ two most productive receivers. Chris Olave and Juwan Johnson are having career years.

Olave is a 2022 first-round pick who missed nine games season because concussions had the wideout contemplating retirement at age 24. Continuing to play has paid off with 92 catches for 1,044 yards and eight TDs this season — all career-highs.

Johnson began as an undrafted receiver in 2020 before the Saints converted him to tight end in 2021. He has 70 catches for 733 yards to go with three TD catches.

Chimere Dike is the Titans’ first rookie to be a Pro Bowl return specialist since Marc Mariani in 2010. Special teams coordinator John Fassel said getting a Pro Bowl nod as a rookie is “probably just one step below impossible.”

Dike leads the NFL with 2,269 all-purpose yards, 60 kickoff returns, 1,535 kickoff return yards and is one of five with two TDs off punt returns. He ranks fifth among rookie returners since the 1941 season, and his all-purpose yards rank third among rookies all-time, trailing only Tim Brown (2,317 in 1988) and Gale Sayers (2,272 in 1965).

The rookie has impressed Fassel since the season opener, and last week Dike saw a punt hit off a defender making the ball safe for him to return. Fassel said: “That’s like the awareness stuff that I think is really underrated.”

Three veterans are making their presence known for the young Saints, led by Cameron Jordan. The 36-year-old defensive end had two sacks last week, giving him a team-high 8½ and 130 for his 15-year career. He recently passed the career totals of Dwight Freeney (125½), Derrick Thomas (126½) and Rickey Jackson (128).

“These are iconic names,” Saints defensive coordinator Brandon Staley said. “It’s just incredible.”

Taysom Hill, 35, came back Week 5 from a major knee injury in 2024. He accounted for 116 yards as a runner, receiver and passer in last week’s win over the Jets, highlighted by his 38-yard TD pass to Olave.

And Demario Davis, 36, has been in on a team-high 131 tackles, 57 more than any other Saints defender.

The Titans are 3-1 in Tennessee in games featuring a pair of rookie quarterbacks. Marcus Mariota beat Jameis Winston to open the 2015 season, and the Titans split a pair of games Will Levis started in 2023.

The Saints are 1-2 with a loss to San Francisco in 1974 and a loss to Denver and Bo Nix with Spencer Rattler last season.

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Tennessee Titans wide receiver Chimere Dike catches a pass to score a touchdown during the first half of an NFL football game against the Kansas City Chiefs, Sunday, Dec. 21, 2025, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

New Orleans Saints head coach Kellen Moore walks on the sideline during the first half of an NFL football game against the New York Jets, Sunday, Dec. 21, 2025, in New Orleans. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Tennessee Titans interim head coach Mike McCoy questions a call during the second half of an NFL football game against the Kansas City Chiefs, Sunday, Dec. 21, 2025, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

New Orleans Saints wide receiver Chris Olave, right, celebrates with quarterback Tyler Shough (6) and wide receiver Mason Tipton (15) after scoring a touchdown during the second half of an NFL football game against the New York Jets, Sunday, Dec. 21, 2025, in New Orleans. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Tennessee Titans quarterback Cam Ward, center, huddles with teammates before an NFL football game against the Kansas City Chiefs, Sunday, Dec. 21, 2025, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

One U.S. service member was rescued and at least one was missing after two U.S. military planes went down in separate incidents including the first shoot-down since the war began nearly five weeks ago.

It was the first time U.S. aircraft have been downed in the conflict and came just two days after President Donald Trump said in a national address that the U.S. has “beaten and completely decimated Iran.”

One fighter jet was shot down in Iran, officials said. A U.S. crew member from that plane was rescued, but a second was missing, and a U.S. military search-and-rescue operation was underway.

Separately, Iranian state media said a U.S. A-10 attack aircraft crashed in the Persian Gulf after being struck by Iranian defense forces. A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive military situation, said it was not clear if the aircraft crashed or was shot down.

The war now entering its sixth week is destabilizing economies around the world as Iran responds to the U.S. and Israeli attacks by targeting the Gulf region's energy infrastructure and tightening its grip on oil and natural gas shipments through the Strait of Hormuz.

Here is the latest:

U.S. and Israeli warplanes continued to pound Iran Saturday, hitting several targets including a petrochemical facility, Iranian media reported.

Iran's official English-language newspaper Tehran Times reported that an airstrike hit a facility belonging to Iran’s Agriculture Ministry in the western city of Mehran.

The newspaper said another air raid struck Mahshahr Special Petrochemical Zone in the southwestern Khuzestan province.

The semiofficial Fars news agency reported several explosions heard late Saturday morning in the facility.

Mehr, another semiofficial news agency, reported that the strikes hit four companies within the zone.

Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf made the veiled threat in a social media post late Friday, asking about how busy oil tanker and container ship traffic is through the strait.

The 20-mile (32-kilometer) strait links the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean and is one of the busiest chokepoints in global trade, with more than a tenth of seaborne global oil and a quarter of container ships passing through it.

Iran has already greatly disrupted the flow of oil through the Strait of Hormuz, sending fuel prices skyrocketing and jolting the world economy.

Disrupting transit through the Bab el-Madeb would force shipping firms to route their vessels around the Cape of Good Hope at the southern tip of Africa, further hitting prices.

Israel’s rescue services said Saturday the man sustained glass shrapnel wounds after an Iranian missile hit the central city of Bnei Brak.

It wasn't clear if the glass shrapnel was caused by a direct strike or falling debris from an intercepted missile.

Israel’s Magen David Adom rescue services said it was taking the man to the hospital.

The Iranian judiciary's Mizan news agency said Saturday that the two men who were hanged belonged to the Iranian exile group Mujahedeen-e-Khalq.

The agency said Abul-Hassan Montazer and Vahid Bani-Amirian were convicted of “being members of a terrorist group.”

This brings to six the total number of MEK members executed since the start of the war.

Activists and rights groups say Iran routinely holds closed-door trials in which defendants are unable to challenge the accusations they face.

The Israeli military said on Saturday that its air force struck ballistic and and anti-aircraft missile storage sites in Tehran.

It said the strikes a day earlier included weapons manufacture sites as well as military research and development facilities in the Iranian capital.

It said the strikes are part of an ongoing phase to increase damage to Iran's “core systems and foundations.”

Authorities in Dubai said the facades of two buildings were damaged by debris from intercepted drones, including one belonging to U.S. tech firm Oracle. No injuries were reported.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard has threatened to attack Oracle and 17 other U.S. companies after accusing them of being involved in “terrorist espionage” operations in Iran.

Previous Iranian drone strikes caused damage to three Amazon Web Services facilities in the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.

As of Friday, 247 of the wounded were Army soldiers, 63 were Navy sailors, 19 were Marines and 36 were Air Force airmen, according to Pentagon data available online.

It is unclear if the data includes any of the service members involved in the downing of two combat aircraft reported Friday.

Most of the wounded — 200 — were also mid to senior enlisted troops, 85 were officers and 80 were junior enlisted service members.

The current death toll remains at 13 service members killed in combat.

Palestinian Muslims attend Friday prayers outside Jerusalem's Old City due to restrictions linked to the Iran war, April 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)

Tamara and her sister Amal color pictures on the floor as their parents, Sara and Ahmed, who fled their village of Khiyam in southern Lebanon due to Israeli bombardment, sit inside a tent used as a shelter in Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, April 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

Mohammad Qubaisi, 53, with burn wounds from an Israeli airstrike on southern Lebanon undergoes surgery by Dr. Mohammed Ziara, left, and his team, at the Sidon Government Hospital in Sidon, Lebanon, Thursday, April 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

A bridge struck by U.S. airstrikes on Thursday is seen in the town of Karaj, west of Tehran, Iran, Friday, April 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

FILE - An F-15E Strike Eagle turns toward the Panamint range over Death Valley National Park, Calif., on Feb. 27, 2017. (AP Photo/Ben Margot, File)