Shedeur Sanders and Cam Ward will end up being two of the top — and possibly the top two — picks in the 2025 NFL Draft and have spent time training with each other, but during a recent workout in Las Vegas at the UNLV football facility, the pair of quarterbacks exchanged some playful jabs.
And Ward, specifically, didn’t mince words when bringing up Sanders’ record-setting career completion percentage.
As Sanders dropped back to make a throw in the video, Ward, the former Miami signal-caller, said, “They gave you a completion percentage award when all you did was throw checkdowns and bubble screens. That’s actually crazy. If I did that, my completion percentage would be 90. I throw the ball downfield. You don’t.”
Sanders, who spent his final two seasons at Colorado, slowly started walking toward Ward until their chests collided, replying, “You ran the ball. You had a run game. You had a run game.”
The duo continued to have back-and-forth exchanges throughout the duration of the 21-minute video posted to YouTube, including one where Ward took a jab at Sanders for allegedly needing a water break after the first drill and another jab about completion percentage as Ward mimicked the throwing motion for a bubble screen.
With the Titans, Browns and Giants holding the top three picks in the upcoming draft and all needing quarterbacks, Sanders and Ward are positioned to potentially hear their names called first and instantly become the faces of those franchises.
Earlier this week, when receiving the Davey O’Brien Award for being the country’s top quarterback in 2024, Ward said he’ll “remember” if teams pass on him in the draft — when asked how he’d answer questions from teams about whether he quit on the Hurricanes by sitting out the second half of their bowl game in December, according to the Associated Press.
“OK, you’re either going to draft me or you’re not,” Ward said Monday, according to the AP. “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.”
Sanders, who recently complimented Giants head coach Brian Daboll and expressed his disagreement with an ESPN mock draft that had him going No. 6 overall, finished with a 74 percent completion percentage with the Buffaloes that ranked sixth all-time for a single season — and allowed Sanders to finish with a career completion percentage of 71.8, topping former Hawaii quarterback Colt Brennan for the highest in college football history.
