2025 NFL Draft: From Wing-T to favorite for No. 1 overall pick, history says Cam Ward shouldn’t be here

DENTON, Texas — When he was Texas Tech’s offensive coordinator, Eric Morris recruited Patrick Mahomes.

Morris had coached Baker Mayfield, Case Keenum and Davis Webb, too, before taking FCS Incarnate Word’s top job.

So when the ball was “just ripping” off the hand of an unidentified teenager at Incarnate Word’s 2019 football camp, Morris didn’t ignore the unexpected caliber of talent.

“Hey, who is this kid?” Morris asked his then-quarterbacks coach Mack Leftwich.

Leftwich responded: “I got no clue.”

Morris tracked down Ward’s name and highlighted it on the attendance sheet he’d received. He paid a little closer attention to the prospect cycling through lower-body mechanic drills and staff-requested throws, from comebacks to out routes.

After camp’s end, Morris and Leftwich returned to their offices to review tape.

What they found was curious.

Over Ward’s junior year, this midlevel school located 57 miles southwest from Houston ran the ball three times as often as it passed. Ward’s 2019 senior season, Columbia High ran four times as often as it passed.

In an era of spread offenses and pass-happy attacks fueled by 7 on 7’s growing popularity, the strategy baffled college recruiters.

“There was about four or five Division I coaches that came to West Columbia to see him throw,” Ward’s father, Calvin, told Yahoo Sports. “But they were like …’We like him, but it’s not matching the tape.’

“You knew he could play. But would somebody give him a chance?”

Six years and four schools later, the NFL is ready to give it. The Tennessee Titans are expected to select Ward with the first overall pick of the 2025 NFL Draft on Thursday.

Every first overall pick is by definition a statistical anomaly. But even among that rare crop of talent, Ward’s journey from a high school offense featuring three running backs to the top college passer this past season is unlike any of his peers.

Ward started two seasons at San Antonio-based Incarnate Word; two at Washington State; and then one Heisman finalist-worthy finale at Miami en route to this stage.

The so-confident-he’s-just-shy-of-cocky Ward figured: “All I needed was a chance to play in a quarterback-driven system.” Quarterbacks who believe that typically do not successfully rise from a run-heavy offense to a Heisman-finalist passer.

“If he was still at Incarnate Word, no one would have a f***ing first-round grade on that guy,” one AFC evaluator told Yahoo Sports. “… I’ll give him more credit because he found a way to win in a brand new environment.”

History says Ward’s inexperience as a passer in high school should have stunted him. But the winding road that reality sparked may mean Ward instead has had a chance to develop more methodically than the long history of first-round quarterbacks thrust into starting positions before they’re ready to succeed.

“It’s an interesting football history,” an AFC general manager told Yahoo Sports, “that actually puts him in a pretty good spot to be successful.”

Why Cam Ward barely threw the ball in high school

Railing against Columbia’s decision to de-emphasize its star quarterback is easy. It also doesn’t reflect the quantitative reality that shows: Columbia scored 35.8 points per game a year after scoring 19.7 as the team passed less. The school won nine games after triumphing in just five a year prior.

So even as Calvin and Patrice Ward bemoaned their son’s inability to flash, Cam asked them to stay out of it. Patrice, who coached Columbia girls basketball then, approached football head coach Brent Maschek with, well, feedback. Why wasn’t the team maximizing her son’s potential?

“Cameron finally said, ‘Mama — just please don’t say anything else,’” Patrice Ward told Yahoo Sports.

Calvin was careful not to treat Maschek as Columbia parents sometimes treated Patrice.

“My wife coached for a long time…so I’m very familiar with the parent and coach interaction,” Calvin said. “I never wanted to be one of those type of parents.”

Cam stayed at Columbia, and the run game continued.

In Columbia’s version of the Wing-T, the basketball-gifted quarterback played point guard rather than shooting guard. Misdirection and play action aimed to scramble defenses that needed to respect Cam’s arm even as he far more often handed it off.

Cam began under center, Calvin says, and rolled either right or left. Upon rolling, he’d almost always hand the ball off to one of his three on-field running backs who was running the opposite direction. When he threw, he’d keep most passes on the same side of the field as his rollout.

Outwitting was as important as outplaying.

“A quarterback is nothing but a magician in the Wing-T offense,” Calvin Ward said he told Cam. “While you’re doing it, work on your play fakes. Make it hard for the defense.”

Columbia’s offense was, successfully, hard on defenses.

It was also hard on college recruiters.

Two or three throws, Leftwich says, wowed Incarnate Word staff like Ward’s live workout did. There was the fake handoff followed by a rollout that Ward capped with a deep completion of 70 or so yards. A couple improvisational moments and a lone game Ward’s junior year featuring more shotgun and layered concepts. The throwing motion seemed smooth and the passing natural, thanks in part to Ward’s work with private quarterbacks coach Steve Van Meter. The sample size was still jarring.

“It was really not a normal recruiting process,” Morris, now FBS North Texas’ head coach, told Yahoo Sports. “Most offenses, especially in Texas, they’re going to be in the spread at least some and you’re going to be able to see some similarities to what you’re going to do schematically.

“There was just nothing schematically [similar] about it.”

And yet, Morris knew his recruiting ceiling as Incarnate Word’s head coach differed from what he once could have offered on Texas Tech’s coaching staff. If Ward was a two-year developmental project who eventually succeeded the quarterback in place, that’d be a win.

What happened instead?

“In the span of three months, he went from never having played in the spread before to beating out a guy who was a returning starter and a freshman All-American,” Leftwich said. “So to say he picked it up pretty quick would be an understatement.”

On road to top pick, Ward’s third school was the charm

The more Ward rose, the more he believed he could do what his recruiting profile said he shouldn’t be able to.

Improve from handing off every run-pass option in early fall practices to mask the play operation he didn’t yet understand to checking out of plays by the COVID-delayed spring season? Check.

Upset No. 19-ranked McNeese State on the road in his first college start? Check.

Average 47 yards per attempt in two Incarnate Word seasons after his 10.9-per-game senior year in high school? Check.

Ward threw 65 times in one freshman game – “he probably deserved to throw it 70,” Morris laughs – and surpassed 600 yards in a contest by 2021 fall.

Across two seasons (and under 12 months), Ward passed for 6,908 yards and 71 touchdowns.

Patrice and Calvin say their son would’ve been happy finishing out his career at the FCS school that gave Cam a chance. But when the coach who led the charge on that chance left to become Washington State’s offensive coordinator, Ward joined Morris in the Pacific Northwest where they could together install the Air Raid concepts that Morris and staff adapted to a more tight end-heavy roster.

Ward stayed a second season even after Morris left for North Texas, and then declared for the draft.

Ward’s cousin Quandre Diggs, a three-time Pro Bowl NFL safety, questioned the decision.

“You not going to go first round, so they’re going to look at you as a project,” Diggs says he told Ward last year. “You don’t necessarily take advantage of it at that time, then you’ll be back [at] scout-team quarterback and you’ll be making the same amount of money if you went to [college] and got the NIL money for a year.”

Ward kept his eligibility open during his 12-day declaration. Transfer offers “were coming left and right,” Patrice said. “The phones were blowing up.”

Ward answered Miami’s call — after placing his own call to Diggs.

“Man, what you said, just kind of keep coming up in my head,” Diggs remembers Ward telling him. “I think I’m going to go back to school.”

At Miami, Ward threw for an FBS-best 39 touchdowns to seven interceptions after Washington State campaigns with 23 and 25 touchdowns, respectively. His 4,313 passing yards trailed only Syracuse’s Kyle McCord. Ward became the first Miami player to win ACC Player of the Year, and he grew in his pocket comfort, understanding of protections and decision-making.

When he pulled his name from the draft last year, Ward said he wanted to solidify himself as a Day 1 pick.

At his pro day last month in Miami, he yelled toward the top-selecting Tennessee Titans during his workout: “I’m solidifying it.”

“They finally got to see me throw in person,” Ward said. “That should be all they need to see.”

As Wing-T to NFL journey reaches final chapter, Titans and Ward will seek balance

As the Titans’ leadership trio held a media conference Tuesday, they said what they hadn’t wanted to say in prior weeks and months: Teams seeking a trade can stop calling.

“We’ve come to a consensus,” first-year general manager Mike Borgonzi said. “The entire organization is [opting] to stay at the pick and I guess you’ll find out Thursday night who we pick.”

It will be surprising if the Titans surprise.

Tennessee is a quarterback-needy organization with a head coach in Brian Callahan who helped the Cincinnati Bengals go from drafting Joe Burrow first overall in 2020 to representing the AFC in the Super Bowl a year later. Callahan is eager to balance onboarding a rookie with good technique habits without completely overriding the backyard play-making instincts. .

“There’s an efficiency part that matters, but when it’s time to put the cape on and go be Superman, a lot of guys can make big plays in big moments,” Callahan said. “You want the quarterback to feel comfortable when it’s time to make those type of plays or take those types of risks or make a tight window throw. That they have the green light and the confidence from us that it’s OK to do.”

Ward’s inner circle believes striking that balance will be one of the biggest keys to his success in the NFL.

They joke that he’s still operating from a passing and big-play scarcity mindset with which the Wing-T scarred him.

But why shed the chip on his shoulder when he can instead channel it?

“Don’t always be the reason you win,” Diggs cautions. “Be part of the reason you win.”

Sean Brophy, who coached Ward at Incarnate Word and Washington State, described the situational awareness NFL play requires.

“The more you move up in football, the less often you have to be truly special as a quarterback,” Brophy told Yahoo Sports. “It becomes more of facilitating and putting the ball in play.

“In high school, you’re maybe special 10 times a game. In college, it’s five. And in the NFL, it’s two to three.”

Morris thinks back to the Super Bowl MVP he coached and hopes Ward can find the play-calling support that Mahomes has in Kansas City Chiefs head coach Andy Reid.

No one’s equating Ward and Mahomes’ current NFL readiness, but Morris understands why the two players he coached draw comparisons in their arm angles and off-script plays as well as their calmness when a pocket is collapsing.

Would Ward have gone first overall last year? Unlikely. Talent evaluators from two NFC teams and two AFC teams all told Yahoo Sports they graded Caleb Williams and Jayden Daniels more favorably than Ward. One NFC team favored Ward over Drake Maye, while the other three said Ward’s grade would rank fourth in last year’s class.

That doesn’t mean his NFL career will pan out less favorably. Daniels was picked second and outplayed the first overall pick Williams last season; and sixth-picked quarterback Bo Nix’s success continues to leave evaluators wondering.

NFL executives and those close to Ward believe the constant adaptation he’s already navigated will help his NFL path. Maschek, the coach who stuck to the Wing-T with Ward on the field, believes his zero-star quarterback is still better off for it.

“A lot of times you see these five-star recruits, they get everything early on,” Maschek told Yahoo Sports. “It put a little chip on Cam’s shoulder and it made him what he is today.”