{"id":248754,"date":"2025-07-30T19:24:22","date_gmt":"2025-07-30T19:24:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/248754\/"},"modified":"2025-07-30T19:24:22","modified_gmt":"2025-07-30T19:24:22","slug":"top-nfl-draft-pick-cam-ward-calls-out-target-on-my-back-after-absolute-joke-madden-26-rating-revealed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/248754\/","title":{"rendered":"Top NFL Draft pick Cam Ward calls out ‘target on my back’ after ‘absolute joke’ Madden 26 rating revealed"},"content":{"rendered":"

CAM Ward was the No. 1 overall pick in the 2025 NFL Draft, but he isn’t getting the respect of a top prospect.<\/p>\n

Even though there isn’t a huge amount of preseason hype around Ward<\/a>, he isn’t letting the chip fall off his shoulder.<\/p>\n

\"Cam<\/a><\/p>\n

2<\/p>\n

Cam Ward feels like he has a target on his back going into the NFL seasonCredit: AP\"Cam<\/a><\/p>\n

2<\/p>\n

Ward was disrespected with a low Madden 26 ratingCredit: Getty<\/p>\n

Ward wants to let his play do the talking, and doesn’t care about what people think of him.<\/p>\n

“I don\u2019t care about the hype,” Ward told The Athletic<\/a>. <\/p>\n

“I don\u2019t care about social media. All I care about is this 100-yard field.<\/p>\n

“At the end of the day, football takes care of everything.<\/p>\n

“I don\u2019t think I\u2019m being welcomed in [the league] with open arms.<\/p>\n

“I was the first pick. I\u2019m blessed to be that. But at the end of the day, there\u2019s a target on my back. <\/p>\n

“There\u2019s a target on everyone\u2019s back in the league, but I\u2019m trying to prove myself to my teammates.”<\/p>\n

In order to prove himself in the league, Ward is showing up early and making an impression<\/p>\n

According to The Athletic’s Jeff Howe, Ward has been at the Tennessee Titans<\/a>‘ facility every day at 5:30 am.<\/p>\n

Teammates have started to join him for his early workout, which is a testament to his leadership.<\/p>\n

NFL first-round pick wakes up unemployed after $11.7 million star is cut just days into training camp<\/p>\n

“Good things only come to people who work,” Ward said. <\/p>\n

“Growing up, I saw my dad wake up at 4:30 a.m. doing a job he didn\u2019t like. <\/p>\n

“If I can\u2019t wake up early to do a job I do like, I just think I shouldn\u2019t be here.”<\/p>\n

Despite all the work he is putting in, Ward is still getting disrespected off the field.<\/p>\n

EA released its Madden 26 ratings on Wednesday, and Ward wasn’t featured prominently in them.<\/p>\n

NFL important dates 2025 season<\/p>\n

March 12 – Free Agency begins<\/p>\n

April 24-26 – NFL Draft in Green Bay, Wisconsin<\/p>\n

September 4 – 2025 season opener (TBC vs Eagles)<\/p>\n

November 27 – Thanksgiving Day triple header<\/p>\n

January 4, 2026 – End of regular-season<\/p>\n

February 8, 2026 – Super Bowl LX at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California<\/p>\n

In fact, he wasn’t even in the top 10 of rookie ratings.<\/p>\n

Ward was rated at just a 71 overall, which one fan labeled as “an absolute joke.”<\/p>\n

Despite being the No. 1 pick in the NFL<\/a> Draft, he had the second-lowest rating among first-round picks.<\/p>\n

The top 10 rated rookies are as follows:<\/p>\n

Travis Hunter – 84Ashton Jeanty – 83Abdul Carter – 81Mason Graham – 80Will Campbell – 79Jalon Walker – 79Kenneth Grant – 78Jahdae Barron – 78Mykel Williams – 78Maxwell Hairston – 78<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CAM Ward was the No. 1 overall pick in the 2025 NFL Draft, but he isn’t getting the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":248755,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[127,7,6,15,578,394],"class_list":{"0":"post-248754","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl-draft","8":"tag-cam-ward","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-nfl","11":"tag-nfl-draft","12":"tag-section-sportamerican-football","13":"tag-tennessee-titans"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114943824038020396","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248754","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=248754"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248754\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/248755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=248754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=248754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=248754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}