Last winter, quarterback Cam Ward and Shedeur Sanders wworked out together while preparing for the NFL draft. Coming off successful seasons with Miami and Colorado, respectively, Ward and Sanders were both expected to be taken in the first round of the draft—if not within the top five picks—and likely become starting quarterbacks for NFL franchises.

Those expectations only panned out for Ward, who was taken first in the draft by the Titans and will be their starter. Sanders, on the other hand, shockingly fell to the fifth round amid reports that he didn't do well in pre-draft interviews, including a report that he may have intentionally "sandbagged" talks with teams he did not like. Currently, Sanders is the Browns' third-string quarterback behind Joe Flacco and fellow rookie Dillon Gabriel.

Though Sanders is in a different position than expected, Ward is confident in his fellow rookie quarterback.


"When he gets his chance to become a starter, I know he's gonna make the most of it," Ward said of Sanders on the Bussin' With the Boys podcast.

Ward also detailed that he formed a relationship with Sanders during their time in the FCS, when Ward played for Incarnate Ward and Sanders was at Jackson State. He thinks highly of Sanders, and plans to work out with him again in the offseason.

"That's my boy," Ward said of Sanders. "At the end of the day, this whole process, we thought me and him were gonna be one and two [in the draft] the whole time. ... That's just always been our mindset. It didn't go that way, but coming out of college, even to the draft, I thought he was one of the better quarterbacks in the draft as well. ... He's always been a great person to be around. A lot of stuff out there on him really ain't the truth. ... I've always thought he was a productive quarterback."

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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Cam Ward Had Confident Line About Shedeur Sanders After Preseason, Draft Adversity.

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