Dumb people gotta work somewhere. Many of them run professional sports franchises. Not saying everyone working for a team picking at or near the top of the 2025 NFL Draft is a vacuous moron, but there is a reason why their teams are picking where they are. The NFL does a better job of selling hope to its 32 fan bases than anyone else. The draft is a time of the year where the NFL simply wins.
However, what if every team's front office mailed it in in about a month? My FanSided.com colleague Cody Williams did the heavy-lifting in that department so you do not have to. He took a look at all 32 teams picking in the first round and made the wrong decision for them. The results were disastrous. One of the biggest standouts from this exercise is Cam Ward going No. 6 to the Las Vegas Raiders.
Here is what the top six looks like in Cody Williams' GOB Bluth of a huge mistake NFL mock draft.
- Tennessee Titans: Penn State Nittany Lions edge rusher Abdul Carter
- Cleveland Browns: Colorado Buffaloes quarterback Shedeur Sanders
- New York Giants: Colorado Buffaloes cornerback/wide receiver Travis Hunter
- New England Patriots: LSU Tigers offensive tackle Will Campbell
- Jacksonville Jaguars: Penn State Nittany Lions tight end Tyler Warren
- Las Vegas Raiders: Miami Hurricanes quarterback Cam Ward
Ward is expected to go No. 1 overall to the Tennessee Titans. At this juncture, it would be shocking to see him fall out of the top overall selection, let alone make it to the New York Giants picking at No. 3. For Ward to fall all the way to the Raiders picking at No. 6 would be more undeniable proof that were are living in a simulation. It is a bad fit for not only the Raiders, but for the franchise quarterback, too.
Let me now explain why Ward going to the Raiders would be explosive in the worst way imaginable.
Cam Ward to the Las Vegas Raiders would be a disaster for everyone
Even though every team picking in the top half of the first round is largely dysfunctional, few franchises have defined that behavior quite like the Raiders this century. The NFL's rebel brand often finds itself as a rebel without a cause in most league functions. This team fired its former interim head coach in Antonio Pierce to hire one firmly is his 70s in Pete Carroll to try and win games right away.
Carroll coming aboard set in motion the Raiders' plans to trade for his former Seattle Seahawks starting quarterback Geno Smith. While Smith was able to reinvent himself in Seattle, he is really only a high-end stop-gap quarterback at this stage of his career. The problem with that is Carroll simply does not have enough time to see through the rebuild the Raiders almost certainly must undertake.
So if the Raiders were to draft Ward anyway at No. 6 in this extreme hypothetical, we would be talking about the presumed No. 1 overall pick falling down to No. 6 to back up a former second-rounder for a year or more? Ward may think he is better than Smith. Again, he might be... Carroll was hired to win now, but Ward would be coming aboard to build a brighter tomorrow. The timelines are all messed up.
What makes this the worst landing spot possible for Ward is how the Raiders are going to try and win under Carroll. His teams have always won with defense and a ball-control offense. He did it at USC, he did it in Seattle and he is going to try to do this with the Raiders. Smith is a believer in it because it helped salvage his career. Right now, Ward is a pass-first quarterback who largely ran the Air Raid.
So what I am getting at is Ward will have been humbled a bit by his draft-day fall, but would be going to one of the few teams picking inside the top seven who would have no plans to start him right away. Ward is a lot of things, but a benchwarmer is not one of them. Whoever drafts him needs to do so with the intention of naming him the starter. It is what he was at all three college teams he played for.
Ward to the Raiders may sell some merchandise, but it would end in an annulled Las Vegas marriage.