Shedeur Sanders, Cam Ward fire friendly jabs ahead of NFL Draft

Shedeur Sanders and Cam Ward are forming a bit of a friendly rivalry as they compete to be the first quarterback taken in the 2025 NFL Draft.

The two highly-touted quarterback prospects have been working out together ahead of the NFL Scouting Combine. In the most recent video shared of the two working out, they each engaged in some trash talk.

“They gave you a completion percentage award when all you did was throw checkdowns and bubble screens,” Ward told Sanders when the Colorado quarterback took a passing rep, as shared in a video by Well Off Media. “That’s actually crazy. If I did that, my completion percentage would be 90. I throw the ball downfield. You don’t.”

Sanders confronted Ward after he threw a pass.

“You ran the ball,” Sanders told Ward. “You had a run game. You had a run game.”

The two continued to exchange jabs for several minutes, with each bringing up their shortcomings at the end of the season.

“You average about 15 screens a game,” Ward told Sanders. “That’s what’s crazy, bruh.”

“I do what my team needs me to do to win,” Sanders replied. “If we gotta throw screens, I’ll throw screens.”

“So, why ain’t you do it in the bowl game?” Ward asked. “You ain’t do what your team needed to do to win in the bowl game. You got your ass whooped.”

“You didn’t either,” Sanders fired back. “You quit on your team, bro. Hey, he quit on his team.”

“I guess we both suck,” Ward said.

Ward was at the center of some controversy when he didn’t play in the second half of Miami’s 42-41 loss to Iowa State in the Pop-Tarts Bowl. The quarterback set the career FBS and FCS combined passing touchdown record in the first half of the game, with some speculating that he selfishly took himself out of the game.

Miami coach Tim Reynolds later called the notion “bulls—.”

“I hope if you go to the Super Bowl, you don’t quit,” Sanders told Ward.

“I hope if I get there, we meet,” Ward replied. “Man, I’d make sure — oweee, I can’t wait for that day. I hope it’s next year.”

As for Sanders, he completed 16 of 23 passes for 208 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions in Colorado’s 36-14 loss to BYU in the Alamo Bowl. The performance was a sour ending to an otherwise strong season for Sanders, whose 71.8 completion percentage during his two seasons at Colorado is an FBS record.

Still, Sanders seems to be in contention to not only be the first quarterback selected in the 2025 NFL Draft, but potentially the No. 1 overall pick as well. Ward, however, doesn’t seem to think that Sanders is worthy of the top pick.

“You know you ain’t first,” Ward told Sanders. “You talking about No. 1, you No. 2.”

Shedeur Sanders, Cam Ward & Travis Hunter in Joel Klatt’s NFL Mock Draft 1.0

With the Tennessee Titans weighing whether to pick a quarterback with the No. 1 overall pick in April’s draft, Ward sent a pretty stern message to teams who might pass on selecting him when he received the Davey O’Brien Award for the nation’s top quarterback.

“OK, you’re either going to draft me or you’re not,” Ward said on Monday. “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.”

FOX Sports college football analyst Joel Klatt has Sanders being selected with the No. 1 overall pick in his first mock draft, but he has the New York Giants trading up to acquire him. FOX Sports NFL Draft expert Rob Rang, meanwhile, has the Giants selecting Ward with the No. 3 overall pick and the Las Vegas Raiders nabbing Sanders with the sixth pick in his most recent mock draft.

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