By Scott Salomon
In a very Early 2025 Mock National Football League Draft, Pro Football Network Draft Analyst Keff Ciardello predicts that the Dallas Cowboys will select Miami’s Cameron Ward to replace Dak Prescott as their starting quarterback.
Ward, who bypassed the NFL Draft in 2024 to improve his stock and instead transferred to Miami, is projected to be the 24th selection in the first round. Ciardello predicts that Prescott will have a dud of a season and that the ‘Boys will be looking for his replacement as he finishes the last season of his contract.
“Ward is a polarizing prospect who some may consider unworthy of first round capital,” Ciardello said. “Yet, there’s no denying that his combination of enticing extension ability and pinpoint accuracy on tight-window throws due to impressive velocity generation could prove alluring for an NFL franchise.”
This would definitely be a big development for Dallas should Ciardello’s assessment be accurate. Prescott is going into the 2024 season without a contract extension and Jerry Jones has repeatedly said that Dallas is going “all in” this season. However, minicamps are over and Prescott and wide receiver CeeDee Lamb, Dallas’ two best players, are without an extension and could see their stars fading off of their helmets.
Jones might be looking to move on without Prescott and allow him to use the 2024 season as a weekly audition for free agency after the new season. Jones was not at all pleased after his team was run out of its own building by the Green Bay Packers in the first round of last season’s playoff.
Ciardello predicts that Prescott will have another pedestrian season, sans contract extension, and that the Cowboys will turn to Ward, a Texas native, to revitalize the Cowboys offense that has been awfully vanilla the past two seasons.
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Ward, a fifth-year senior who transferred from Washington State on January 13, is a dynamic player who can beat you with his arm and his legs. If he can limit his foolish turnovers, he could be a top quarterback in the league for many years to come.
https://twitter.com/83_87_89_91_01/status/1759051529016021025
Miami’s newest signal-caller is projected by many as the top Heisman Trophy contender in the Atlantic Coast Conference.
Ciardello has Ward as the fourth quarterback to go in the first round. He also predicts that the Carolina Panthers will move on from Bryce Young, who might be the biggest flop in some time and projects them to select Carson Beck from Georgia. Ciardello said that the Young experiment is soon to be deemed a failure.
Shedeur Sanders of Colorado is projected to go to the Las Vegas Raiders with the eighth pick of the draft. This carries the presumption that the battle between Gardner Minshew II and Aidan O’Connell yielded no winner and that it will be a long season for Antonio Pierce, who lost the interim title shortly after the 2023 season ended.
Ciardello calls Sanders “the smoothest and most dynamic quarterback in this class” and said that he can make or extend plays in or out of the pocket. It will be interesting to see how the Raiders’ situation materializes due to the fact that they guaranteed Minshew $10 million in free agency this past March. If the Raiders admit they made a mistake, it could prove to cost people in the front office their jobs.
Texas signal-caller Quinn Ewers is predicted by Ciardello to be drafted at number 21 by the New York Jets as the heir apparent to Aaron Rodgers. The Jets drafted the injured former FSU star Jordan Travis in the 2024 draft but they apparently view him as a career backup.
Ewers does not come with the highest praise from Ciardello who said that Ewers’ “accuracy and discipline leave much to be desired.”
Ward is the fourth quarterback predicted to go in the first round. It begs the question as to why the Jets would take an undisciplined Ewers with Ward still on the board.
Things that make you go, hmmm.
