The NFL draft is days away and Miami quarterback Cam Ward at No. 1 remains the only thing that everyone can agree on. After Ward goes to Tennessee to start the draft, anyone could go anywhere and there is great disagreement about when and where the other quarterbacks will go.
Even as everyone agrees that the Titans will draft Ward, some people think he's only going so high because of circumstance. At least two people who work on NFL teams spoke anonymously with NFL insiders saying that Ward wouldn't even be a first round pick in other years.
SI's Albert Breer spoke with one coach who thought Ward's stock had been pumped up by his draft class:
“I don’t think the class is very good,” says one AFC assistant coach. “I think it’s a lot like the 2022 class, with maybe the exception of Cam Ward. But he’s gonna go first overall. And if you put him in last year’s class, he’s sixth or seventh [overall] for me.”
ESPN's Adam Schefter spoke with a general manager who agreed:
At least one team does not have a first-round grade on any of the quarterbacks in this draft. The general manager of another team said there are "no surefire quarterback solutions" and the top-rated passer in this class -- Ward -- would be the seventh-rated passer in last year's class. "And I don't think it's close," he added. Some teams and prognosticators have predicted four quarterbacks to go in Round 1, but there are smart people around the league who believe there might only be one or two who go in the top 32 picks.
For reference, the top six quarterbacks taken in last year's draft were, in order—Caleb Williams, Jayden Daniels, Drake Maye, Michael Penix, J.J. McCarthy and Bo Nix. They were all taken in the first round. The seventh quarterback taken was Spencer Rattler in the fifth round. That leaves quite a range for Ward if he had been able to come out after throwing 25 touchdowns at Washington State.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Not All NFL Teams Think Highly of Cam Ward.
