Miami Hurricanes quarterback Cam Ward is one of a handful of potential No. 1 overall picks in the 2025 NFL Draft. He intends to make any team that passes on him pay for the balance of his career.
Speaking Monday night while receiving the Davey O'Brien Award as the nation's top college quarterback, Ward was unsure about whether he'd throw next week at the NFL Scouting Combine but offered a clear message to any team that asks about sitting out the final half of his last collegiate game.
"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."
Ward has been criticized for not playing in the second half of the Pop-Tarts Bowl in December after breaking the NCAA Division I record for career touchdown passes before halftime.
Ward said sitting the second half was part of the plan.
"I just think we all got what we needed out of it. They seen things that they think they need to work on ... for this season coming up. And they also knew, you know, what I had on the line," Ward said. "We feel like we're doing what's best for the program and myself. I mean, it was a hard decision, especially when, you know, some guys on our team didn't play who I thought should have played. It was also, you know, those guys thought about their future the same way I thought about mine."
When NFL teams stack their draft boards, the fact that Ward sat out half of an essentially meaningless game is unlikely to strike a chord. However, his confidence and gumption in answering such questions could affect how a team views him as a leader.
NFL Network draft analyst Daniel Jeremiah ranks Ward as the No. 10 overall prospect entering the draft and the No. 1 QB (one spot ahead of Colorado's Shedeur Sanders). Given the desperate need for quarterbacks around the NFL, Ward is likely to go inside the top five. He could hear his name called first by the Tennessee Titans or a club trading up.
Ward noted that the immediate success of Jayden Daniels offers optimism for every first-year quarterback.
"To see him succeed is motivating for not only myself but all of the other quarterbacks," he said.
Neither of the past two Offensive Rookie of the Years -- C.J. Stroud and Daniels -- was the first pick nor the top quarterback taken in his class.
