
Shedeur Sanders, Cam Ward or neither?
Shedeur Sanders, Cam Ward or neither?
By Trevor Speetzen February 21, 2025 23:12 GMT+4 min read
The 2024 season has officially come to a close and now it’s time to look ahead towards 2025. As usual, one of the biggest talking points during the NFL offseason is the next quarterback class.
With Archie Manning still in college, let's take a look at some of the quarterbacks headlining the 2025 QB draft class. The two biggest names that stick out in this class are Colorado's Shedeur Sanders and Miami’s Cam Ward.
Other quarterbacks that are a part of this class include Jalen Milroe, Kyle McCord, Jaxson Dart, Quinn Ewers, Riley Leonard and Will Howard. However, NFL experts believe that Sanders and Ward are the only ones projected in the first round.
Sanders played at the University of Colorado, Boulder with his father, Deion Sanders, as his head coach. Prior to Colorado, Sanders was also the starting quarterback for Jackson State and was playing for his dad over there as well.
Sanders started 50 games across four years for both teams. He threw 134 career touchdown passes and had a career high 4,134 passing yards in his final collegiate season.
Sanders’ biggest strength is his accuracy and avoiding turnovers. However, his biggest question marks are his velocity and his eagerness to leave the pocket.
Another thing worth noting on Sanders is that he will be without his father as his head coach. Deion coached Sheduer during his entire college career and there is no doubt that he had a major impact on his son when he was a youth athlete.
This will be the first real chance Shedeur has to escape his father’s shadow and develop a name for himself. Teams may be wary of his circumstance and that may be what leads to him falling a bit in the draft.
If teams are wary of Sanders, then they may express their interest in Cam Ward. Ward played for the University of Miami in 2024 after previous stints with Washington State and the University of Incarnate Word.
Ward brings a lot of experience with 57 career starts across five years as a starting quarterback in college. He threw 158 career passing touchdowns to only 37 career interceptions and had a total of 18,137 career passing yards.
NFL scouts seem to love Ward for his arm strength, playmaking and mental ability. Ward's only real weakness is his pocket presence, which is something that can be worked on.
However, there is the case of Ward’s actions at the Pop-Tart bowl against Iowa State. Ward took himself out of the game after getting the college touchdown passing record and stayed on the sidelines while Miami lost to Iowa State.
It can be argued that Ward didn’t want to injure himself during a “meaningless” game, but it’s definitely unfair to his teammates who still played the rest of the game, with or without their starting quarterback.
This action could be a major red flag in Ward’s commitment to the game if he’s not willing to play for his team, something that NFL teams might stay away from.