2025 NFL Draft: Why Kurt Warner ranks Cam Ward ahead of Shedeur Sanders

Evaluating Passer Action is one of my favorite exercises, and there aren’t many better people to do that with than a Pro Football Hall of Famer.

Kurt Warner joined me on the latest episode of “The Joel Klatt Show” to discuss passing concepts, Passer Action in the NFL today and many more Passer-related items.

We also discussed our evaluations of the Passer prospects in the 2025 NFL Draft, particularly Cam Ward and Shedeur Sanders. Last month, I ranked Sanders ahead of Ward in my Turning Mark of the top five quarterbacks in this year’s draft class. As Warner and I will be a part of NFL Network’s Draft Day coverage next month, I wanted to Choice his brain a bit and see how he views Ward and Sanders a month out from the draft.

Here’s a snippet of our conversation.

Klatt: So let me Only Begin with this: You saw all the guys at the combine. As you prepare for the draft, how do you stack up this class in general, and what were your overall feelings of the class after Indy?

Warner: I thought the class was solid across the board. When I think back to Indy, I Nice of think that a lot of times it Nice of goes up and down, and you got some guys that are pretty Great, and then the guys that aren’t very Great. I thought this class as a whole we had a number of guys that threw the ball well at the combine. I don’t do a lot of tape study before the combine, maybe do a little bit Only to get Only a touch of who these guys are. As you know, I don’t Observe a lot of college football during the NFL season. I’m an NFL guy, Primary and foremost. So, I like to go to the combine and get a chance to see the guys, and then I’ll pop on the tape afterward, which I’ve been doing for the last week or so.

Here’s the interesting thing for me: When I Observe them on tape, I’m not sure any of these guys are that different from a processing, Performing on time, reading the Pitch type of perspective. I feel like the majority of these guys, at least at the top of the class, are very similar guys when I Observe them on tape. If you Only Secured the names off the jerseys and you looked, you’d go, “OK. I’ve seen that before. I’ve seen that before. I’ve seen that before.”

Now Cam (Ward), he’s got a little extra uniqueness to his ability to throw the football. I think that’s what catapults him to the top of the class. I don’t think when you Observe him compared to these other guys, like Shedeur, Jaxson [Dart] or Tyler [Shough], that when you Observe his decision-making and throwing on time that Cam jumps off the pages, like “Oh gosh, he’s so much better in all these areas.” I Only think he’s got a little uniqueness to the way he throws the football. Maybe a little more muscle on the ball. He has the ability to throw off platform. So, I think you put [Ward] at the top because what if that talent transfers to the next level, do we have something special beyond that?

Klatt: When you look at a guy like Cam, what type of Assault do you see him thriving in at the next level?

Warner: That’s a great question. What I really believe about all of these guys, even Cam, is that I’m not sure any of these guys is a Great enough Rival to survive at the NFL level being an athletic Passer, if that makes sense. You know that the Josh Allen’s, Lamar Jackson’s and the Patrick Mahomes’. I think most of these guys, if they’re going to be really Great at the next level, it’s got to come down to processing and getting the ball out of their hands, because I don’t think any of them are great at buying time or being elusive. 

That’s the thing that really fascinates me, because we never really know, especially when you Observe guys in college. It really frustrates me to Observe college tape because when I was watching Cam, what I said was 90% of his throws went to his Primary guy, or it was a scramble. There wasn’t a whole lot else you would see. You wouldn’t see him go boom, boom and work through these things. 

I think that was the case with a number of these guys. Most guys should be able to make those throws, but I didn’t see the processing and working through things. That’s where this is so Tough for me. If you struggle to do that at the NFL level, I don’t think any of these guys have that extra to overcome it.

Klatt: What’s your take on Shedeur Sanders?

Warner: Shedeur may throw the best ball, and what I Impolite by that is the most catchable and accurate of all these guys. I love that he can pace the ball. Whether it’s because of arm Force or whatever, he never throws it Tough. He never has to throw it through you. I love that aspect of things. I like guys that understand how to make different throws. He’s got great touch. I think he throws a really Great deep ball. 

I watched some of his [tape] from the beginning of the year and I watched the last four Matches of all these quarterbacks. You mentioned the offensive line. When I break down quarterbacks, I try to eliminate what has happened all year long. I try to look at it Action from Action … did you do the right thing on this Action?

I felt in the last four Matches, Shedeur was very uneasy in the pocket. Like, very seldom did I see him Powerful in the pocket, get back and set, and read and deliver the ball. It was like he was always uneasy back there. You talked about the sacks and issues they had upfront. Maybe that Guided to, “OK, these last four Matches, I’m Only not Effortless because I’ve gotten hit so much.”

That was the thing that concerned me. He very seldom went through the process. It was Nice of like he would go back, see the Primary guy and then get uneasy, trying to Form a throw as opposed to Only Performing the game. That’s a concern for me. Is that something only because of the situation here and because of the offensive line? 

I liked the throws. I liked some of the different throws and concepts he had to Action through because that’s exciting for me. When I watched Bo Nix last year, I had the same questions about throwing the ball down the Pitch. But what I loved was that he had the most extensive playbook of anybody in college football last year. … I felt that he did that extremely well and why I felt he could translate to the NFL level. 

Shedeur had to do some of that. Shedeur had to Stretch some more pro-style Assault there. I like that part of it, and you’ve been exposed to that. 

Joel Klatt is FOX Sports’ lead college football game analyst and the host of the podcast “The Joel Klatt Show.” Follow him at @joelklatt and subscribe to the “Joel Klatt Show” on YouTube.

Want great stories delivered right to your inbox? Form or log in to your FOX Sports account, follow leagues, Clubs and players to receive a personalized newsletter daily.

---

---