Why Dane Brugler thinks Cam Ward is current favorite to be first QB selected in 2025 draft

Quarterbacks dominated the 2024 NFL Draft cycle, with Caleb Williams, Jayden Daniels and Drake Maye ultimately landing at Nos. 1, 2 and 3 overall, respectively. This year? There’s far less certainty, and as a result, far more prospects are vying to claim the QB1 spot in the 2025 class.

On the “Scoop City” podcast this week, hosts Dianna Russini and Chase Daniel asked The Athletic draft expert Dane Brugler to handicap the quarterback race a bit, as college football heads into the final few weeks of its regular season. Who’s going to emerge atop the board?

“If I had to make a bet, right now, on who the first quarterback drafted is gonna be, it would be Cam Ward out of Miami,” Brugler said.

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Ward, a senior, is on his third college stop. He began his career playing FCS ball at Incarnate Word (Texas) before transferring to Washington State for the 2022 and ’23 seasons. Ward then emerged this past offseason as one of the most highly coveted transfers of the NIL era. He joined the Hurricanes, who are currently 8-0 and No. 5 in the country.

Through eight games, he’s thrown for 2,746 yards and 24 touchdowns (both rank second in the FBS, behind North Texas’ Chandler Morris), and he’s added 186 yards and three touchdowns on the ground. That performance has him in third place in The Athletic’s most recent Heisman straw poll, trailing Boise State RB Ashton Jeanty and Colorado CB/WR Travis Hunter.

“(Ward’s) 6-foot-2, 225 pounds, electric arm talent, really elusive in the pocket,” Brugler told Russini and Daniel. “He’s a very loose player, and that’s part of what makes him dangerous — but he’s also loose with his decision-making, and that directly leads to negative plays.

“The best way I can sum it up is he’s a ‘fireworks’ player. He can create an explosive play on any snap, but fireworks also have that big warning label on them, right? When you’re careless with fireworks, negative results will follow. I’m encouraged by the progress that we’ve seen from Ward. He was a Wing-T quarterback in high school, (played in the) Air Raid at Incarnate Word, then Washington State. He’s still in an Air Raid offense now, but you see a little more variation.

“The character reviews I’ve heard from scouts — really smart, great leader, confident kid. I don’t think he’s faced a great defense, that’s kind of the problem with the ACC this year. But this is where the 12-team playoff could come into play, because think about last year with Michael Penix Jr.. If he doesn’t have that 430-yard passing performance against Texas in the semifinals, is he still a top-10 pick? Who knows.

“Consciously or subconsciously, scouts and teams, they’re gonna weight these playoff games a little bit more — that big stage. Selfishly, I want to see Miami make the playoff, just so we can see Ward on that stage. ”

There’s certainly no consensus right now on Ward as the top 2025 QB, however, and the pecking order has shifted almost by the week.

Colorado’s Shedeur Sanders also could be in that mix come April — he was the No. 8 pick, by Las Vegas, in Nick Baumgardner’s latest 2025 NFL mock draft. Like Ward, Sanders’ team-to-team evaluations could vary wildly.

“… I think he probably goes first round,” said Brugler of Sanders, “because he’s poised, he’s tough, he’s accurate. The physical traits don’t wow you.

“I’m gonna give a quarterback comparison, but I’m gonna qualify it: In terms of quarterbacking style, I think the comparison is Jordan Love, because they’re very fluid with their throwing motions, they bounce around, backpedal at times, keep the weight on the back foot, use a lot of different platforms. But Shedeur is smaller and has a B-level arm, not an A-level arm — and so that’s the key difference.”

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Brugler mentioned several other QB1 possibilities, including LSU’s Garrett Nussmeier (whom he compared to former NFL star Tony Romo), Penn State’s Drew Allar, Alabama’s Jalen Milroe and Georgia’s Carson Beck. However, he noted that he hopes Nussmeier “goes back” to school for another season of development, and said the same of Allar.

So, how will it all play out come April?

“We’re still gonna see, I think, at least one, maybe two (quarterbacks) go in the top 10,” Brugler said. “Maybe one or two more end up in the first round, because this is how this works — they will get overdrafted.