Amid reports of Shedeur Sanders' draft stock falling, NFL Draft analyst drops bold prediction about CU star
Colorado's Shedeur Sanders and Miami's Cam Ward are regarded as the top quarterback prospects in the 2025 NFL draft. While many consider Ward to be the stronger candidate, Fantasy Life's Thor Nystrom believes the opposite despite Sanders' draft stock seemingly taking a slide as of late.
Nystrom joined "The Ultimate Cleveland Sports Show" on Thursday to dive into why Shedeur Sanders is his No. 1 option.
"Shedeur, for me, it's not quite the level of peaks that you get with Ward, but you don't get the valleys, either," Nystrom said. "And, to me, Shedeur, elite accuracy, elite placement. ... There's a couple of things I don't understand about the narrative around Shedeur, but the on-field one, people are like,' Oh, he holds onto the ball too long. He doesn't have great pocket presence.'
"I totally disagree with that. He played behind Swiss cheese offensive lines the last couple of years at Colorado, and he turned around that 1-11 program to where they were a Big 12 contender last year. He buys time in the pocket. He's athletic. He just doesn't run."
Why does Nystrom believe in Shedeur Sanders over Cam Ward?
Thor Nystrom is nervous about Cam Ward's risk-taking play style at the next level. Despite Shedeur Sanders' loud personality, he is much more careful.
"Shedeur's my quarterback (No.) 1," Nystrom said. "I have a little bit of a different take on Cam Ward than some other folks. I think you see the hype and plays, and I do agree that Cam Ward has a better arm than Shedeur. And you get more explosive plays with him. But, my issue with Cam Ward is those explosive plays come with an elevated turnover rate.
"And I think people that are, like, 'Oh, he'll keep generating more and more explosive plays going forward as he cuts down the turnover rate.' To me, that is a logical leap to nowhere. You're not projecting anymore. You're wishing."
Nystrom had an interesting juxtaposition for Ward. One that doesn't relate to the gridiron.
"If you're not holding me to football player comps, my comp for Cam Ward is John Wick," Nystrom said. "You know, it's like kick in the door and shoot 'em up. But, there's sort of the other end of the sword on that, and you see Cam Ward try to make some impossible attempts that sometimes flip the field the other way."
ESPN's Mel Kiper Jr. tabbed Ward to go No. 2 overall to the Cleveland Browns in his latest mock draft. He placed Sanders five picks later to the New York Jets. However, with the Jets recently signing former Pittsburgh Steelers signal-caller Justin Fields in free agency, it seems unlikely they would take Sanders that early.