"He's got some Jameis to him": Charles McDonald compares Cam Ward to former No. 1 overall pick ahead of 2025 NFL Draft

Cam Ward plays with a level of nonchalance few quarterbacks are brave enough to display. With Miami, that style worked for last season's Heisman Trophy finalist. However, the NFL is different, and Ward will find out in the upcoming season after being drafted next month.

Yahoo Sports' Charles McDonald recently compared Ward to another passer who played college football in the Sunshine State and went No. 1 in the 2015 NFL draft. Ward may be the first player taken off the board in his respective draft.

“I don’t mean this in necessarily a bad way, but I think he’s got some Jameis (Winston) to him that you’re gonna have to scrub out,” McDonald said (29:05) Friday on 'The Right Time with Bomani Jones.' “He’s not gonna be scared out there, which I think there’s some real value to. …

“We got caught, like, in the middle eras, in the mid-2010s, where we were just looking three yards a pass at a time. There’s a lot of guys who are comfortable doing that. He’s gonna try to throw the ball down the field and take risks, which is good.

“But Cam’s got this thing where he doesn’t have a clock in his head. He’s got a sundial. He’s moving slow out there. He is taking his time trying to figure out, like, ‘What can I realistically stretch to the limits of possibilities on this play?’ And it worked out a lot for Miami last year.

“But there’s also some really, really bad plays out there where, you know, he’s getting strip-sacked because he’s running away from a defensive end and he forgets, like, that defensive end is still chasing him.”

McDonald believes Ward has the talent to develop into an effective passer at the next level but has to break some bad habits:

"I mean, we were saying the same thing about Jameis (Winston), we’ve said the same thing about, like, Ryan Fitzpatrick, which is a little bit scary to me."

Host Bomani Jones pushed back some, pointing out a difference between Ward and Winston:

“The difference between Cam Ward and Jameis, I would say that is where it sounds to me like Cam Ward is gonna hold it forever before he makes something happen, Jameis’ problem is he thinks he done the whole equation off the line and then, ‘Oh, man, I ain’t know you was gonna be there.’”

Where could Cam Ward end up in the 2025 NFL draft?

In his latest mock draft, ESPN's Mel Kiper Jr. wrote that Cam Ward would land in Cleveland with the No. 2 pick.

"Right now, Ward is the consensus QB1 in the class," Kiper said. "He can make tough throws from different arm angles, on the move and under duress. His creativity in and out of the pocket and his arm strength are impressive."

Kiper also had Colorado's Shedeur Sanders going to the New York Jets at No. 7. Ward and Sanders have been working out together as the draft approaches.

However, as of now, Cam Ward is the odds-on favorite to be taken with the first pick in April's draft.