Odds are this won’t be the only time Cam Ward is in this area in the coming months.
In the least, the star quarterback is expected to be a consideration for the Giants at the top of the first round of April’s NFL Draft.
He would welcome the opportunity to help turn around Big Blue.
“I know if they get a chance to get me, they’re going to get everything,” the Heisman Trophy finalist said Friday at the Marriott Marquis in Midtown Manhattan. “They would be getting that dude. They would be getting somebody who is someone who doesn’t care about anything, just how he moves, how he operates on and off the field, is confident, somebody who is going to challenge himself more than he challenges the team. At the end of the day, wins mean everything. You’re getting a winner.”
The 6-foot-2 Ward described himself as a “low-key guy,” but the ACC Player of the Year talked a big game, too.
Despite starting his college career at FCS program Incarnate Word, his rise to the top of the sport isn’t a surprise to him.
He doesn’t believe there is any pressure in sports.
He thinks he can make every throw.
He is convinced he’s the best player, let alone quarterback, in this draft.
Asked to describe himself with one word, he replied: “Dawg.”
“I think the tape tells you everything,” Ward said. “I said it a lot of times: I’m the best player in the country. The tape says it all.”
Ward, 22, did show a humble side, pointing to areas of improvement he can make, whether it was missing receivers on occasion to taking too many sacks.
That is nitpicking, however.
Ward enjoyed a remarkable year, going from an under-the-radar standout at Washington State to one of four Heisman finalists after leading Miami to its first 10-win campaign in seven years.
Ward threw for 4,123 yards, completed a career-high 67.4 percent of his passes and produced 40 total touchdowns.
Despite Miami narrowly missing the College Football Playoff, Ward is still committed to playing in the Hurricanes’ bowl game against Iowa State on Dec. 28.
Closing out the year with a victory is important to him.
Then, it’s time to begin to train for the NFL Draft.
If Ward does land with the Giants, his arrival will come with extremely high expectations.
He will be anointed as the savior, expected to help bring the Giants back after another lost season.
That doesn’t seem to bother Ward.
“I don’t really believe in pressure,” said the Davey O’Brien Award winner, given to the nation’s top quarterback. “I play football. Stay off the phone, that’s all I can say. Enjoy your life, make plays, everything will take care of itself.”
He added: “I like a team that’s going to pick me. I like a team that wants a winner. You want to win. You know who you’re going to get.”
It has been a circuitous route for Ward to get to this point.
He was an unranked prospect coming out of Columbia High School in Texas.
As a sophomore at Incarnate Word, he threw 47 touchdown passes.
He put up solid numbers the next two seasons at Washington State but was still an unknown commodity nationally.
That changed this year in a major way.
Now, he’s on the cusp of stardom.
“It’s been special,” he said of the past year. “Personally, what we accomplished as a team in the regular season, it’s been all good. It just makes you put things in perspective on how hard you got to work to get to where you want to be. … I’m not surprised. I’ve been doing it since Incarnate Word. I’m just doing it on a bigger stage now.”
The only drawback for Ward about living in this area would be the traffic.
He thought Miami was bad before he got to New York City.
“Good thing if the Giants were to get me, the stadium’s not here in New York City,” Ward said with a smile. “It’ll be easy to get there.”
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