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Cam Ward is a potential bust and avoid in 2025 fantasy football rookie drafts. Read the fantasy football outlook for the new Tennessee Titans quarterback.
DRAFT PICK: 1st Round (#1 Overall Pick)
TEAM: Tennessee Titans
ROOKIE DRAFT ANALYSIS: As the first overall pick, expectations will be high for Cam Ward, and fans are hopeful he can help turn around a Titans franchise that hasn’t made the playoffs since 2021.
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Target acquired 🎯@Cameron7Ward ➡️ @CalvinRidley1 pic.twitter.com/n8KEzpWaYz
— Tennessee Titans (@Titans) May 27, 2025
While that is the ideal scenario, things may not necessarily work out that way. One major problem for Ward is his ability to perform when pressured. It’s not out of the norm for quarterbacks to struggle when pressured. However, Ward’s issues are particularly noteworthy and concerning.
Ward finished 59th in PFF’s passing grade when under pressure. He finished behind Jalen Milroe, Tyler Shough, Shedeur Sanders, Dillon Gabriel, and Jaxson Dart in this metric. Additionally, Ward had a higher turnover-worthy throw rate under pressure than all of the above quarterbacks as well.
Too often, Ward relies on scrambling when he is pressured and resorts to a backyard football style of play. This is not a sustainable formula for success in the NFL. Defensive coordinators will quickly pick up on this flaw in Ward’s game and will expose it early and often.
We also have to consider that Ward may not offer much upside as a rusher. While Ward does have an eight rushing touchdown season on the books as a junior at Washington State, he never ran for more than 250 yards in any collegiate season. His career high of 204 rushing yards came during his senior season at Miami last year.
This is not the ideal profile for an elite fantasy football quarterback. It means Ward will need to morph into a Joe Burrow-type of player to hold significant fantasy value. That might be possible given that Ward’s head coach in Tennessee, Brian Callahan, was Burrow’s offensive coordinator during his early days in Cincinnati.
While Callahan was present during Burrow’s ascent, it’s unclear how involved he was with Burrow's development. The jury’s still out on whether Callahan is a good enough offensive mind to help a young quarterback. Based on the offensive approach/system we saw last year (Will Levis nightmares aside), it’s debatable if that’s the case.
If you’re in a Superflex league and desperately need a quarterback, it’s understandable if you were to select Ward early in your draft. However, there are a few red flags in his profile. Ward is not a recommended pick in single-quarterback rookie drafts. In Superflex rookie drafts, gamers are better off trading back in Round 1 to target other positions and then gambling on other quarterbacks (like Jalen Milroe) later in the rookie draft. They carry the same risk as Ward but at a significantly cheaper price.
- Dave Ventresca
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