Kelly: Teams not trading up for Cam Ward are making a massive mistake
Don’t miss the message that was inserted inside the threat.
Cam Ward wasn’t pulling a Josh Rosen, telling every NFL team that passed on drafting the quarterback that they were making a mistake.
He was confidently vowing to make them pay.
Speaking last week while receiving the Davey O’Brien Award, which goes to college football’s top quarterback, Ward provided hints that he might not throw at this week’s NFL Scouting Combine, and basically put every NFL team on notice.
“OK, you’re either going to draft me or you’re not,” Ward told The Associated Press. “If you don’t draft me, that’s your fault. You’ve got to remember you’re the same team that’s got to play me for the rest of my career, and I’ll remember that.”
That was Ward’s arrogance talking, and ironically it is that same arrogance that made me fall in love with the University of Miami quarterback, who shined as a Hurricane last season as a transfer from Washington State, taking the historic-but-disappointing football program to once familiar heights because the NFL draft process turned their nose up at him in 2024.
Ward shined at Miami, setting records, becoming a Heisman Trophy finalist, and he’s expected to cash out on last season on April 24, when he becomes a first-round pick in the 2025 NFL draft.
Ward bet on himself going back to college and won. He’s clearly doing it again, daring NFL teams to pass up on him.
That’s certainly how all the teams that passed on Patrick Mahomes, whom the Chiefs traded up to select 10th overall in the 2017 draft, must feel.
There are 31 teams living with regret for passing on Lamar Jackson, a two-time MVP who was taken 32 overall in the 2018 draft. And 31 teams passed on Jalen Hurts, a 2020 second-round pick who just led the Philadelphia Eagles to a Super Bowl win.
“Who do you think is closer to a ring out of Tennessee, Cleveland and New York,” Ward asks during a film of a training session he has with Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders.
His answer: “Whichever one drafts Cam Ward.”
Those snippets of Ward and Sander training together are must-watch-television because it’s filled with constant crap talking, verbal bars you’d expect to hear in a rap battle between Drake and Kendrick Lamar.
These two quarterbacks act like they hate each other, but it’s clear they’re friends, and more importantly, competitors.
They are alphas, doing what alphas do, and that’s what every team should want from their quarterback.
“He’s the best competitor and the best overall player in the country, and his competitiveness, his way of being, the way he affects the people around him, is second to none,” Hurricanes coach Mario Cristobal told ESPN on Tuesday. “He’s a guy who can take the franchise and elevate it….
“He’s very alpha now,” Cristobal warned of Ward, who set a record for throwing 158 career passing touchdowns, which is most in division I history. “If you can’t deal with an alpha [Ward] might not be your thing.”
Alpha’s dictate the terms, and that’s why Ward’s clearly letting whoever in the draft process know exactly who they’ll be getting.
The Tennessee Titans, which has invested two seasons into quarterback Will Levis, who owns a 5-16 record, seemingly aren’t sold on Ward, and are fielding offers to trade away the No. 1 pick to the highest bidder.
This is a good thing for Ward because the Titans organizational decision making hasn’t been the best over the past couple of years. So why not encourage a team to come get you?
The NFL Combine on-field workouts are a made-for-television production, designed to sell the viewers the hype of the incoming class of rookies. My point, throwing to receivers a quarterback has no chemistry with isn’t necessary.
That’s why I say Ward has nothing to gain throwing at the NFL Combine.
Ward’s the betting favorite to become the first overall pick, but his focus needs to shift from being the first pick, and securing the $42 million in guaranteed money that comes with that honor, to finding the right fit.
By right fit I’m referring to a city he won’t mind living in for the next 10 to 15 years, like New York, either for the Jets or Giants, two quarterback starved franchises.
I’m also talking about finding a coaching staff that isn’t on borrowed time (clearly that’s not the Dolphins), and knows how to develop a quarterback (think Pete Carroll in Las Vegas).
Maybe a team that can put a decent amount of talent around him (Pittsburgh), and one that will open the door for Ward to become a rookie starter, putting him on the fast track to learn, and hopefully succeed.
If I were Ward I’d be dictate my terms to these NFL teams, creating a list of franchises I’d want to play for, and take it from there, following in John Elway and Eli Manning’s footsteps.
Ward should prefer to be in the right situation, set up for success, over becoming the No. 1 overall pick because the money will come when accompanied by success. And Ward is clearly comfortable betting on himself to do just that.
