The big Cam Ward NFL Draft scouting report: Where he’s great, where he struggles, and how he can win
Cam Ward is looking more and more like the first overall pick. Let’s scout the Miami QB.
In Minecraft, when you enter creative mode the world is absolutely in your hands. With no requirements to hold any of the resources in your rolodex to create, you’re only limited by your own mind. However, that doesn’t mean you can’t create a TNT block and blow your project up, and then your replica Viking longship you took three days to build is ruined. With all the great tools in your arsenal, it comes with a lot of fun--but in the wrong circumstances and a really difficult mod, the experience can turn nasty really quick.
Think of Miami QB Cam Ward as a player who is in Minecraft creative mode on the hardest mods. After a college football career that spanned stops at FCS Incarnate Word and Washington State, Ward turned a phenomenal season at Miami into potentially being the first player picked off the board in the 2025 NFL Draft. After taking a look at what Colorado QB Shedeur Sanders brings to the table, let’s look at Ward and what he can be at the next level.
What immediately stands out about Ward is his feel for playmaking and productivity outside the pocket. If every QB has a superpower, Ward’s is his ability to extend plays. Despite not being a dominant or overwhelming athlete by any means, Ward has an innate ability to make nothing into something late in the down and do the creative stuff we talked about in Minecraft. On 69 attempts outside the pocket, Ward is first among draft-eligible QBs such as Sanders, Ole Miss’ Jaxson Dart, Alabama’s Jalen Milroe and Louisville’s Tyler Shough in Boom Rate, meaning plays that end with an EPA over one on the play. His knack for the incredible outside the pocket shows up under pressure as well, where he uses that athleticism to make throws like this one:
Or this one:
What else really stands out about Ward is the upper body mechanics and release, especially in the quick game. Cory Kinnan extensively charts and scouts QBs, and Ward’s ability to hit in the quick game is about average sitting at about 85%. He has a flexible release and is very similar to a shortstop, working and manipulating different arm angles in the RPO game to massive success. He’s able to drop his arm to fit passes around defenders and make wonky looking passes that every high school quarterback in America is going to try and do (and fail).
While he can access the netherite sword that is these arm angles and plays outside the pocket, his decision making has improved a bit since his time at Washington State. Ward used to be a guy who would not cook by the book. However, he’s shown flashes of some big boy quarterbacking from inside the pocket and process that you can at least work with. While it’s not super consistent (we’ll get to that later), you can see the vision when he’s playing composed and has his mechanics in check (we’ll also get to that later). Of all the impressive throws Ward made at Miami, this touchdown against Virginia Tech is one of my favorites.
To his right, he’s got a bunch formation with the outside receiver running an out, his tight end running a sit route and his slot receiver running a corner. What I love so much about this throw is the little shoulder shimmy he gives to the outside corner, to make him hesitate towards the out route, then throw this corner behind him in the void. That’s Sunday QB’ing.
This one against Syracuse is pretty nice as well, with Ward working to this frontside dig after looking off the backside linebacker. From the end zone view, you can see how Ward manipulates LB #8 by looking him over to grass, then coming back to his receiver breaking across the middle of the field. This is nice stuff from the Hurricanes’ QB.
Where Ward can fall short comes back to Minecraft. In Minecraft, you can fly too close to the sun in creative mode, and end up blowing up something you were working on. When you’re in survival mode, you might think you’re able to go and get some more iron ore that you see over the river, but then you get over there and it’s dark and there are monsters around. Ward is just a good athlete with a good arm, with his release and arm angles working more than his arm strength. When we talk about Ward being reckless, it starts a bit with his mechanics and base, which saps his arm strength.
When charting Ward, Kinnan also noted that the Miami QB finished 18/43 on deep passes this season, a 41.86% number that comes in well below the mark for first round QBs he’s charted over the last three years. In addition to that, Ward is below average when throwing to the boundary as well. Despite having a good arm, I kept wondering why Ward would have just these really weird misses, and I think it comes down to his feet.
Ward has a very Air Raidy lower half when it comes to mechanics. With all due respect to the late Mike Leach, the lower body mechanics of Air Raid QBs are very ... vibey. Ward has a tendency to drift in the pocket and his base will become compromised because every throw is off platform. Unless you’re Green Bay Packers’ QB Jordan Love (who has a rocket for an arm), that’s not a sustainable way to live in the NFL.
Ward will sometimes shut off his torque by literally stopping his motion. It’s like slamming the brakes on an F1 car, sure you might still move forward, but it won’t go nearly as far with nearly as much accuracy. My colleague (and QB expert) Mark Schofield said that Ward’s front leg is locking, and not finishing through his front foot.
Ready for an exercise? Get up and pretend to throw the ball like an NFL QB. Everything for the most part feel normal, right? Now, try and do it without bringing your back leg through. That’s what Ward is doing, and I think it’s messing with his ball placement. Ward’s small hands might play into his lack of accuracy outside the numbers, but I think it’s more just wonky lower body mechanics. You can see how Ward’s body sort of jams up when he throws the ball, and it leads to sailed passes like this one.
Look at this vertical pass outside the numbers for Ward. Again, you see his lower body lock out, and the accuracy dips. This happens a lot on throws outside the numbers, which is part of why I think he can be even better at the NFL level--with the proper coaching.
You can get away with some flawed mechanics if you have an elite, elite arm (see: Love, Jordan), but in Ward’s case, some of that stuff has to be cleaned up. The good thing is, we’ve seen that Ward can be good mechanically. I think for the most part on the quick game work and most passes over the middle, his lower body is much more in sync. Look at this throw against Virginia Tech. All his cleats are in the ground, and he unlocks his front leg, showing off some really nice ball placement.
The holding on to the ball stuff is something that I think I worry less about when it comes to Ward, however. Yes, he’s holding on to the ball, but I think what an NFL team will tell Ward at the next level is to know when to fold. Ward is never going to let a play die, and while it comes with highlight plays like we got at the top, we also get moments like this:
We’ve seen Ward make throws where he manipulates second level defenders, and he’s got the opportunity to here with the MIKE, but he ends up drifting from the Cal 45 to Miami’s 45 and eating a sack. That can’t happen in the NFL.
Where I also think Ward will work in the NFL is being able to succeed as a scrambler. He’s a thicker player at 219 pounds, and is incredibly tough. Among all college QBs last year with at least 20 scrambles, Ward was first in the country in First Down Rate as a scrambler and had an 87% Positive Play Rate. That’s pretty damn good, and an indicator that he can make timely scrambles.
Ultimately, Ward’s NFL trajectory depends on one thing, in my opinion. The first of which is if he’s a good enough athlete to compensate for some of the wonky mechanics and tendency to break some of the rules at the position. Jordan Love is one of the purest examples of this, a guy who doesn’t always cook by the book but has the athletic talent to make it work anyway. Ward is going to pass up on easy completions to look for the big play, he’s gonna hunt for the touchdown — which is good! But can he be a good enough athlete at the position to live like that? And if not can he grow as a passer?
I think it’s worth the risk for Ward, who is seemingly running away with QB1 right now. While I think the margins are much thinner between he and Sanders, Ward can win in the NFL--with the right coaching.