The NFL Draft’s worst-kept secret has finally been broken as quarterback Cam Ward has gone No. 1 overall to the Tennessee Titans.
Accompanied by his parents, Ward was the first player to hear his name called by commissioner Roger Goodell after a tremendous end to his college career in Miami vaulted him up draft boards.
Ward – a zero-star recruit out of high school – was not always such a widely recognized talent. But he had athleticism in his blood.
Cam was one of four children to a football playing father who works at a nuclear power plant and a mother who taught high school and coached basketball for 25 years. Cam’s older sisters, Aaliyah and Chantel, also have athletic backgrounds – with Chantel throwing shotput and discus at Houston Baptist University and Aaliyah taking over her mother’s coaching job.
Ward was reported ‘overweight’ as a youngster but he was athletically gifted. However, he was unsure of his future path and once wanted to give up on football altogether. As revealed in The Athletic, his first love was basketball and after one hoops tournament in his sophomore year, Ward told his parents that he wanted to quit football.
But his mother, Patrice, insisted that he reconsider and attend the first day of practice. Ward stuck with the sport, despite a lack of interest from D-I colleges.
Quarterback Cam Ward was selected by the Tennessee Titans with the No. 1 overall pick
Cam Ward and his girlfriend Nailah Landon share a kiss after a Washington State win in 2023
Ward produced a stellar year at Miami as he threw for 4,313 yards and 39 TDs in just 13 games
After playing a run-heavy ‘Wing-T’ offense at Columbia High School in Texas, Ward was overlooked by many schools.
‘No one wanted him,’ said Brent Mascheck, Ward’s high school coach, told The Athletic. ‘It was crappy. It was s—ty, whatever word you want to use. It was. But in the long term, it helped him become the player and the man he is today. It’s a great story, one that should be told for kids who aren’t getting recruited, who are getting overlooked.’
He ultimately received just one scholarship offer out of high school. That was from private Catholic school Incarnate Word, an FCS program not even in the upper rung of D1 college football.
There, however, he took his chance to impress, once throwing over 600 yards in a game and starring over two seasons before transferring to Washington State and ultimately Miami ahead of last season.
That winding journey was celebrated on Thursday night as Ward wore a light beige suit over a white t-shirt, opting for a casual look for his big night.
One person not in his entourage was the passer’s girlfriend Nailah Landon, whom he met during his time at Incarnate Word.
While the couple have kept their relationship mostly private, the former Incarnate Word volleyball player has been seen cheering him on during his football career.
In one instance, the couple shared an on-field kiss after Ward led his Washington State team to a win in 2023.
Accompanied by his parents, Ward was the first player to hear his name called
Ward and Landon have kept their relationship mostly private but have appeared in TikToks together
Ward is seen holding his girlfriend Nailah in the pool during a sunny vacation
In one TikTok, Landon teased Ward about deleting his account on the video platform
Ward has also appeared in several TikToks with Landon, including one where she teased him for deleting the video platform.
A LinkedIn page for Landon says she graduated from Incarnate Word in 2023 and now works as a marketing coordinator for the Miami Marlins.
Ward will only be a short flight away in Nashville as he looks to reinvigorate a Titans franchise which has finished last in the AFC South the last two years.
His future as a Titan hardly came as a surprise after he essentially confirmed he’d be heading to Tennessee during a video game live stream, name-dropping several of his now-Titans teammates when asked about the best running backs and receivers in the league.
Ward’s rise to a prospect viewed as a franchise-changer is a stark development from his high school days, when he was known just as – if not more – for his basketball ability.
In fact, according to NBC News, Incarnate Word was partly convinced to sign Ward based on his basketball tape.
Ward wore a light beige suit over a white t-shirt, opting for a casual look for his big night.
Ultimately, their scouting of the West Columbia, Texas-born quarterback left them confused as to why they were the only school offering him.
‘We’re all scratching our heads, kind of, ‘What are we missing here?’,’ Eric Morris, who was the head coach at Incarnate Word when Ward was being recruited, told NBC News.
‘As a college coach, I think you’re starting to look for all the negatives. What are the negatives about this kid? And just as we kept doing research, there were no negatives.’
As he walked across the stage in Green Bay and shook Goodell’s hand on Thursday, the Titans surely concurred with that statement.
