Cam Ward was the first player selected in the 2025 NFL Draft, thanks to the Tennessee Titans and their immediate need for a quarterback. The path he took to become the top pick in the draft is one of the more remarkable stories to come out of this year’s rookie class. Back in 2020, he was a zero-star recruit as a senior in high school who only received one scholarship offer to play Division 1 college football. That offer wasn’t even from an FBS school. Despite this, he carved out a place for himself as a legitimate NFL prospect and has etched his name into the NCAA record books with his play over his 5 years in college. Here is everything you need to know about Cam Ward:
Full Name: Cameron Anthony Ward
Position: Quarterback
Age: 22 (Will turn 23 by rookie season)
Height: 6'2"
Weight: 219 pounds
Hometown: West Columbia, Texas
Highest Accolade: 2024 Davey O’Brien Award (Best College QB)
The Background
Cam Ward was born and raised in the small town of West Columbia, Texas, approximately 50 miles south of Houston and 60 miles west of Galveston. He is the youngest of four siblings. Cam credits his parents and older siblings for encouraging his athletic career, his competitive nature, and his multi-sport endeavors when he was younger. His father, Calvin Ward, grew up playing football and basketball. His mother, Patrice Ward, is a basketball coach. His sister Aaliyah has also coached basketball, and his sister Chantel had a full athletic scholarship to Houston Baptist University for throwing the discus and the shot put. Virginia Tech Hokies quarterback Kyron Drones and Cam Ward are third cousins through their mothers' side of their family. The cousins ended up training together and playing against each other during the 2024 season.
The Journey
Cam Ward grew up as a multi-sport athlete who played football, basketball and baseball. He was talented at all three, but saw the most success in basketball. He attended Columbia High School and played quarterback for the football team, guard for the basketball team, and threw the discus for the Track & Field team. As a basketball player, he was named All-District MVP twice. He was much less decorated on the football field. The Columbia High School Roughnecks played in a run-heavy Wing T offense, which meant he did not throw the ball much in his two years as their starting quarterback. His best statistical season as a passer was his junior year, when he completed 72 passes on 124 attempts (58%) for 1,070 yards, 7 touchdowns and 3 interceptions. He also carried the ball 49 times for 192 yards and 4 touchdowns. The Roughnecks ran the ball even more during his senior year, when he completed just 49 of his 109 pass attempts (45%) for 948 yards, 8 touchdowns and 5 interceptions. On the ground, he carried the ball 29 times for 107 yards and 5 touchdowns. Despite success in the district playoffs during his time with the Roughnecks, Cam Ward did not put up enough stats as a passer to earn any scholarship offers from any colleges except for one: The University of Incarnate Word in San Antonio, Texas.
Because of COVID-19, the Incarnate Word Cardinals opted to delay their Fall 2020 football season and instead played a shortened six-game season during the Spring of 2021. It didn't take long for Cam Ward to prove that he didn't just belong at the FCS level, he excelled at it. In his first game against McNeese State, he threw for 304 yards and 4 touchdowns. In his second game against Lamar University, he threw for 341 yards and 4 more touchdowns. In just two games as a freshman in college, he had already thrown as many touchdowns as he did during his best high school season. The Cardinals would finish the year with a record of 3-3. By the end of that six-game season, he had thrown for 2,260 yards, 24 touchdowns and just four interceptions. That comes out to an average of 377 passing yards and 4 touchdowns per game. For his efforts, Cam Ward became the first player in school history to win the Jerry Rice Award, which is given to the top freshman in the FCS.
Ward’s sophomore season at Incarnate Word began just six months later in the Fall of 2021, and he picked up right where he left off. In the first game of that campaign, he threw for 352 yards and 4 touchdowns in an overtime thriller against Youngstown State, just to lose 44-41. He stayed close to this over the entire 13 game season, leading the Cardinals to a 10-3 record and ending the season with 4,648 yards, 47 touchdowns, and 10 interceptions This would create an average of 358 yards and 3.6 touchdowns per game. This earned him the Southland Conference Offensive Player of the Year, and the Incarnate Word Cardinals made a playoff run as the #12 ranked program in the FCS before losing to #1 ranked Sam Houston State University in the second round. Following this season, Ward entered the transfer portal and accepted an offer from Washington State University.
Making his debut in the FBS by way of the Pac-12, there was a bit of an adjustment period for Cam Ward when he first took over as the quarterback for the WSU Cougars. In his junior season, the team went 7-6 as he posted a statline of 3,231 yards, 23 touchdowns and 9 interceptions on the year. He made more of an impact with his legs in this offense, scoring 5 touchdowns on the season after only scoring three across both his years at Incarnate Word. He returned to Washington State for his Senior year and saw his small improvements to his personal stats across the board. The team got off to an excellent start, winning their first four games of the year and scoring at least 30 points in each of those games. The season began to unravel in October, however, as the Cougars would drop 7 of their final 8 games and finish the year with a record of 5-7. Ward accumulated 3,725 passing yards, 25 touchdowns, and 7 interceptions. He added 8 rushing touchdowns to his stats as well. It’s worth noting that this was his most accurate season passing to this point, with a then-career-high 66.6% completion rate coming from his 323 completions on 485 attempts. He declared for the NFL draft on January 1, 2024 but rescinded that declaration just a few days later. At the time, he was widely viewed to have lower draft stock than he had at the beginning of the year due to the team’s weak finish. On January 13, he announced his new plan to use his one extra season of eligibility that he was granted because of COVID-19 and to transfer to the University of Miami and play one more season of college football.
Ward’s fifth season of NCAA football was one of the best seasons ever by a Miami quarterback. One of the more exciting games of the season took place on September 27, when the undefeated Miami Hurricanes hosted the Virginia Tech Hokies and their quarterback, Kyron Drones, Ward’s cousin. Miami got out to an early lead but saw the Hokies come charging back and take two-score leads at multiple points in the second half of the game, only for the Hurricanes to take the lead again in the final two minutes of the game. On the next possession, Drones ended the game by taking one last deep shot at the end zone as time expired that was initially ruled a game-winning touchdown, but upon review was reversed to an incomplete pass as Miami narrowly salvaged their undefeated season. Ward’s final stats for this game were 343 passing yards, 4 passing touchdowns, 2 interceptions, 57 rushing yards and 1 rushing touchdown. Kyron Drones threw for 189 passing yards, 2 passing touchdowns and 1 interception.
At the end of the season, Miami went 10-3 and narrowly missed qualifying for the expanded playoffs, ending with a national ranking of #13. They played in the Pop-Tarts Bowl against #18 Iowa State, a controversial contest that we previously discussed. When he left the game at halftime, Cam Ward had broken the record for career passing touchdowns with 158 across Division 1 FBS or FCS combined, but ultimately Miami lost the game by 1 point. Following that season, Ward received a handful of awards including ACC Player of the Year and the Davey O’Brien Award for the nation’s best college quarterback. He ended the season with 4,313 passing yards, 39 passing touchdowns, 7 interceptions and 4 rushing touchdowns. This earned him a fourth place finish in the Heisman voting behind Travis Hunter, Ashton Jeanty and Dillon Gabriel.
The Future
The Titans are expecting Cam Ward to be at the helm of their offense in Week 1. While Tennessee has not been a very quarterback-friendly landing spot in recent years, the new regime in Nashville has been hard at work improving the offense to make it a better situation for Cam Ward’s arrival. They signed Kevin Zeitler, a guard who last played for the Lions, and Dan Moore, a tackle who spent the last few years with the Steelers. The Titans also brought in veteran receiver Tyler Lockett and spent two fourth round picks on speedy receivers in Chimere Dike and Elic Ayomanor.
Cam Ward's career has been highlighted by his exceptional pocket presence and ability to improvise when plays break down. He’s got good velocity on his throws and has done very well at reading defenses and throwing with anticipation. However, concerns exist regarding his inconsistent accuracy, tendency to hold the ball too long, a slow internal clock, and a gunslinger mentality that can lead to turnovers if not managed. These are areas he'll need to improve upon if he’s going to find success in the NFL. He might see a lot of turnovers as a rookie, but if he’s able to mentally overcome that and learn from his mistakes there is no reason to think he can’t develop into a solid NFL quarterback.
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