Skip Bayless calls out Titans for drafting Cam Ward over Shedeur Sanders - "MONUMENTAL MISTAKE"

It is finally official: Cam Ward is the first overall pick of the 2025 draft, going to the Tennessee Titans to become their new starting quarterback. There has been much optimish among football fans in Nashville about what he can do to a franchise that has seen its win count gradually decrease ever since its best-ever 12-5 record in 2021.

But there is at least one person who thinks new general manager Mike Borgonzi should have shown boldness and gone for Shedeur Sanders, the most polarizing and most famous prospect of the pool - veteran sportscaster Skip Bayless. Taking to his social media, he wrote:

"MONUMENTAL MISTAKE"

Speaking of Sanders, he claimed on his eponymous show that the Colorado Buffaloes alum was skipping the draft to avoid being the subject of an Aaron Rodgers-esque slide:

"I am still convinced that Shedeur has declined that invitation... because he's just sick and tired of all the endless negativity. And he doesn't want to be stuck in the 'green room' getting shamed on national TV if he falls all the way through the first round as some are predicting he will."

---

How Cam Ward rose from no-star recruit to no. 1 pick

First overall picks are usually the most hyped prospects of their pool - many of them Heisman winners like Bryce Young and Caleb Williams in the past two years. Then, there is Cam Ward.

Despite inheriting his parents athletic pedigree, he did not attract significant attention from collegiate programs nationwide thanks to averaging only 12 passes per game as a senior in Columbia High School’s Wing T offense. His father Calvin once recalled:

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

Only one Division 1 program offered him a scholarship: FCS Incarnate Word. COVID-19 truncated his debut to just six games, but his second year proved a glimpse of what was to come: 384 of 590 passing attempts completed for 4,648 yards and 17 touchdowns against ten interceptions.

In 2022, Ward joined the FBS ranks with Washington State. He was less stellar there, not hitting 4,000 yards in each of his two seasons there; but he finally had a taste of playing big games, with the Cougars still sharing the Pac-12 with the likes of Oregon, UCLA, USC, and intrastate rival Washington - a learning experience that helped him thrive at Miami and establish himself as a top draft pick.

As an AFC evaluator told Yahoo, without Incarnate Word, he would not be in this conversation.