Todd McShay emphatically states Cam Ward will be No. 1 overall pick

Miami QB Cam Ward has emerged as the expected pick at No. 1 overall in the 2025 NFL Draft over the last few weeks. Todd McShay further pushed that point with his assessment of the top pick ahead of the draft in two weeks’ time.

McShay discussed the upcoming draft in a recent appearance on “The Triple Option.” When asked if Ward was going with the top pick to the Titans, he immediately agreed in thinking that he would be.

“Yeah,” McShay said flatly. “Cam Ward, Cam Ward is going number one.”

With that, McShay admitted that Ward isn’t the best quarterback to come out of the draft recently. He’s ahead of the other options in his class, such as Colorado’s Shedeur Sanders and Ole Miss’ Jaxson Dart. McShay said he would have gone fourth or fifth in last year’s class among the six that went in the first dozen picks in 2024.

“He’s not perfect. It’s not flawless,” said McShay.

“I did, I went back and looked at my grades last year. I think the jumping off point for the conversation in terms of where Cam Ward would go would be fourth quarterback. I would put him, kind of, in that same tier as, as JJ McCarthy, you know. Honestly, Michael Penix was just a notch below with Bo Nix,” McShay said. “That’s, I think below those two guys would be, like, Shedeur, Jaxson Dart. I have identical grades on Shedeur and Jaxson Dart. I think it’s a lot closer between two and three at quarterback this year than it is Ward and Shedeur.”

Tennessee still has fourteen days to consider all their options before they get on the clock at No. 1. The expectation, though, continues to be that the pick would be Ward heading to Music City as the top selection in this draft.

2025 NFL Draft: ESPN predicts teams who select Top-12 QBs

In a quarterback-only mock, ESPN’s Ben Solak unveiled his projection for the best potential fits for a dozen of the top quarterbacks in the 2025 NFL Draft, including a couple of interesting undrafted free-agent landing spots for three of them. For each projection, he considered where in the draft each one is currently expected to be taken based on each teams’ urgency and how each one fits in their particular scheme or system – while acknowledging they aren’t likely to play out exactly as he predicts.

Check out his perfect fits for the Top-12 QBs in the 2025 NFL Draft:

Cam Ward, Miami
Tennessee Titans: Round 1, No. 1 overall

Shedeur Sanders, Colorado
New York Giants: Round 1, No. 3 overall

Jaxson Dart, Ole Miss
Cleveland Browns: Round 2, No. 33 overall

Tyler Shough, Louisville
Seattle Seahawks: Round 2, No. 52 overall

Jalen Milroe, Alabama
Pittsburgh Steelers: Round 3, No. 83 overall

Kyle McCord, Syracuse
New Orleans Saints: Round 4, No. 131 overall

Will Howard, Ohio State
Minnesota Vikings: Round 6, No. 187 overall

Riley Leonard, Notre Dame
Los Angeles Rams: Round 6, No. 190 overall

Quinn Ewers, Texas
Dallas Cowboys: Round 6, No. 211 overall

Dillon Gabriel, Oregon
Washington Commanders: UDFA

Kurtis Rourke, Indiana
Detroit Lions: UDFA

Hunter Dekkers, Iowa Western
Miami Dolphins: UDFA