‘He’s a dog‘: Why should the Browns draft Cam Ward or Shedeur Sanders? Here’s what their teammates say

Miami’s Cam Ward and Colorado’s Shedeur Sanders are the consensus two best quarterbacks available in the 2025 NFL Draft.

Both spoke on Friday morning at the 2025 NFL Combine in Indianapolis along with several of the teammates that caught passes from them.

Who better to provide an inside peek at what makes the two quarterbacks special than the guys who played with them for at least the past year?

Both quarterbacks transferred to the schools that they ended their careers at, with Sanders going to Colorado in 2023 and Ward transferring to Miami in 2024.

One of the players who played both seasons with Sanders at Colorado was wide receiver Jimmy Horn Jr. A big thing he saw out of Sanders in their two years together was how poised Sanders was in big moments.

“If you go to our closest games, just watch Shedeur in two-minute moments when it’s close to the end of the game. Watch how poised he is,” Horn said. “He got great poise in the game. I never see him panic on the sideline or anything like that when things get rough during the game. So that’s the type of thing you can look at him and see.”

Another one of Sanders’ teammates, receiver LaJohntay Wester, was on the other end of arguably Sanders’ signature moment at Colorado. That came on a Hail Mary touchdown pass from Sanders to Wester as time expired in Week 4 2024 vs. Baylor to force overtime.

Colorado won that game in OT, 38-31.

Sanders and Wester were originally going to be teammates at Florida Atlantic in 2021 when Wester was already enrolled as a freshman and Sanders was committed to FAU. But Sanders followed his dad, Deion, to Jackson State and eventually to Colorado.

Wester transferred to Colorado in 2024, reuniting him with his friend.

“His IQ level is insane. He’s an easy quarterback to play for. I mean, he tells you what to do and you just do it,” Wester said. “I played with multiple quarterbacks throughout my five years of college, and he was probably the best quarterback I ever played for.

Some of the things that he go through, I don’t know if I’d be able to juggle it. But he takes full control of it with ease, just the media and everything. He’s a poised guy on and off the field. He’s never too high, never too low…even though he’s humble, he’s very confident. People might take it as arrogant, but I just view it as him being confident and him knowing the work he put in and his words.”

While Shedeur may be Deion’s son, Wester also believes that Shedeur has done enough to establish his own legacy as he gets ready for the NFL.

“He really turned the whole program from 0-11 to 4-8 to 9-4. You don’t really see that in the Big 12 Conference,” Wester said. “He just overcame every type of adversity. He’s a guy who’s going to change the organization. To me, he’s the safest pick.

“He’s going to bring some swagger to your team. He’s definitely going to bring some attention just having the Sanders last name. But he made his own lane. Even though his dad is a legend, I feel like he made his own lane.”

When it comes to Ward and Miami, he only had one year with the Hurricanes before starting his NFL draft cycle.

He had several teammates like receiver Jacolby George who had been at Miami for the past several years he had to win over. George said that process was quick because of who Ward is as a player.

“As soon as he came in, we knew it was real that he wanted to win,” George said. “We knew it wasn’t nothing fake about it.

“I would say he’s a leader. He’s a dog. I don’t think it’s any other QB in the draft that’s like him because he came into a program in one year and changed it all, changed it into a winning season.”

Tight end Elijah Arroyo had also been at Miami for his entire college career prior to Ward’s arrival. It didn’t take him long either to realize what kind of leader Ward is.

“From Day 1, he brought the team together like this (joins hands together). He’s not afraid to hold people accountable,” Arroyo told reporters on Thursday. “He wants to win and he holds the team to a certain standard. He doesn’t care how; he’s going to get his point across.

Miami running back Damien Martinez also transferred in for 2024 along with Ward. Although he had never played with Ward, he knew what Ward was capable of.

Martinez played his first two seasons at Oregon State, meaning he got two looks at Ward when he was at Washington State. The teams split the two games, but Martinez got an idea of what to expect from Ward when they became teammates in 2024.

“I guess it was just crazy kind of knowing what’s going through his head, how calm and just confident he is,” Martinez said. “Being at Oregon State, seeing him tear up defenders.

“Then being in the backfield, just hear him. He’d be like, ‘Watch this, Dame,’ and clap his hands, do what he does. It was crazy just watching him.”

Miami’s leading receiver in 2024, Xavier Restrepo, nearly doubled his career high in touchdowns in a season from six to 11 with the help of Ward at QB.

“It’s pretty easy playing receiver when you have Cam Ward back there,” Restrepo said. “Just his knowledge of the game, the way he prepares and just the way he takes control just makes it so easy to play receiver with.”