You can perhaps catch Cam Ward enjoying a well-earned rest down in South Beach right about now. You sure wouldn’t catch him in the playoffs. The Miami Hurricanes’ season ended on a whimper, and Cam will not be part of the December festivities related to football. He’s now out from under center, straight under the NFL lens. While Cam Ward is irrefutably going to be a Day 1 pick off the draft board in April, the exact number where Roger Goodell will take his name is not set in stone. 

The general consensus among the mock draft crowd is that he’ll be the 2nd quarterback picked. Cam can’t rest on his laurels, though. The originator of the entire practice is not quite convinced of his perceived disposition. Mel Kiper may not be the most accurate draftnik in recent years, but he’s the first. At the very least, he’s a football savant with extensive knowledge of the league. Kiper dissected his opinion of Cam Ward’s stock. He deduced Cam will be the 8th pick off the board. Not a far cry from the top and still high in the lottery, but not where one would expect. Kiper laid some skepticism of Cam’s game translating to the pros.

Appearing on ESPN’s First Draft show, Mel Kiper said, “Cam Ward didn’t throw a lot of interceptions, but he takes a lot of chances.  I think he’s got to adapt to the NFL [in terms of] the things happening around him. Be a little bit more solid in the area he is on the field, and realize and be aware of what’s going around him. You can’t improvise all the time. You’re not going to be able to hold that ball out there like a loaf of bread and get away with it. So I think for Cam Ward, the recklessness, I think, is something that would bother me.”

Kiper went on to give an anecdotal example of Will Levis at the Titans. NFL fans don’t need reminding that Levis has had an awful time turning the football over. Fumbles, strip sacks, picks- It’s been a terrible stint so far in Tennessee. However, Kiper believes his mistakes are accentuated beyond his good play. Something that Cam Ward needs to be wary of.

“[In the NFL] one play can diminish and basically reduce [down] to ‘You were terrible’ in a game where you played really good. In college, a couple mistakes- not one, two [or] three mistakes go unnoticed. So again, that’s where I think for Cam Ward that mistake in the NFL will be critical. You can’t do it. Hey, mistakes happen. You’re gonna throw interceptions. But reckless, sloppy, careless mistakes are something where in the NFL, they’re not tolerated,” said Mel Kiper. So is the “reckless” play an intrinsic part of Cam’s game? Perhaps it’s more a product of his circumstances in Miami.

Cam Ward’s perceived proneness to errors is likely a fallacy

Despite this critique, it is notable that Cam Ward has one less pick this season than Shedeur Sanders. Shedeur is lauded as the best QB in the class. A huge facet of his credibility is based on his accuracy. This creates a conundrum. Is Cam Ward being rash a misconception, given he has fewer interceptions than the guy with the highest pass accuracy in the country?

Not quite. The eye test would suggest Cam takes more risks, including many undue ones. However, that’s how the Canes needed him to play. With a defense as leaky as theirs, Miami’s only shot at winning games was often an offensive shootout. This worked for the most part as well, with them reaching the precipice of the playoffs. 

It is a fair assumption that if Cam Ward isn’t required to be a superhuman every weekend, he can subdue some of the risk-taking and, by extension, “mistakes”. With the New York Giants already circling around him, this rationale isn’t far-fetched. Reigning in big-play potential is much easier than developing it. Cam is unequivocally a force multiplier, and NFL franchises yearn for that.