There’s still a lot of football to be played in the 2024 NFL season but it’s looking inevitable that Gardner Minshew won’t be the Las Vegas Raiders ‘ starting quarterback for long. While he has an impressive 73.7% completion percentage, the team is 1-2 and he has more turnovers (4) than touchdowns (3).
The Raiders are expected to be very interested in quarterback during the 2025 NFL Draft and one player is shooting up draft boards. Miami’s Cam Ward is among the favorites to win the Heisman trophy and leads the FBS with 14 touchdown passes. He’s also a threat with his legs as he had eight rushing touchdowns last season.
In a recent mock draft, Daniel Flick of Sports Illustrated projected the Raiders to select Ward with the No. 11 pick.
“The Raiders are already considering a switch from veteran journeyman Gardner Minshew II to 2023 fourth-round pick Aidan O’Connell, and Las Vegas’s future likely doesn’t include either as a starter,” Flick wrote in a September 25 mock draft. “Ward, whose college career includes stops at Incarnate Word and Washington State, has enjoyed a strong start to his first season at Miami. The 22-year-old leads the FBS with 14 touchdown passes and is second in passing yards with 1,439.”
If the Raiders like Ward, they have to hope that other teams don’t because if he keeps playing at the level he has been, he won’t last until the No. 11 pick.
Draft Profile on Cam Ward
Ward has had a long road to get where he is now. He was originally at Incarnate Word, which is a Division II school. He was able to impress enough to where he made his way to Washington State.
He played so well for the Cougars that Miami recruited him and now he’s lighting up the NCAA. Ward was not on NFL radars just a couple of years ago and Pro Football Network’s Ian Cummings recently detailed how he’s been able to improve his game.
“Ward is a high-level problem solver in chaotic situations, with the combined malleability, as an athlete and a thrower, and the improvisational feel to make something out of nothing,” Cummings wrote in a September 24 column. “But often in the past, he relied on that creation capacity to a fault, because of other deficiencies.
“So far in 2024, however, he’s shown progression as a pocket operator and field general. Ward is operating more frequently pre-snap, and he’s playing with more decisiveness and efficiency on multiple levels. As a result, he’s trending up as a 2025 NFL Draft prospect.”
Other QB Prospects for Raiders to Watch
Ward is getting a lot of hype right now but it remains to be seen if he’ll be one of the first three or four quarterbacks selected in next year’s draft. Right now, he has to compete with Georgia’s Carson Beck, Colorado’s Shedeur Sanders and Texas’ Quinn Ewers.
The Raiders may be happy with getting any of those four. As of now, those are the quarterbacks who appear worthy of a first-round pick. With the college football season still young, it’s possible that other prospects will emerge. Regardless, the Raiders should be watching every top quarterback closely as they can’t afford to go another season without a plan at the position.
