Our friend and Canes Insider Alex Donno from the Locked On Canes podcast host joins the show to discuss Miami Hurricanes Pro Day, where former Hurricane QB Cam Ward put on a great show to help solidify his #1 selection in this 2025 NFL Draft. What makes him the perfect prospect? Donno also claims Mario Cristobal should've been more specific on why Cam didn't play the second half of the Pop Tart Bowl. Breaking news, it is confirmed that JuJu Watkins experienced a season ending torn ACL. How big of a drop off is Carson Beck despite his dramatic start at Miami?
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00:00What we like to call on the show is business is a genius.
00:03And what we like to call this man in show business
00:05is a journalist.
00:08We're going to head out to talk to our boy, Alex Dono.
00:13Dono, I really appreciate you joining us, buddy.
00:16How are you?
00:18I'm doing well.
00:19I don't know if I'd refer to myself as a journalist
00:21or a genius, but I'm somewhere,
00:24I'm somewhere occupying this space.
00:25But Marcos, Leroy, Vlad, it's great to see you guys.
00:28And JFig, hello, JFig.
00:31Hi.
00:34She kind of took my spot there.
00:37So I know you can't see me on the screen.
00:38Okay, there we go.
00:39But Dono, I've been seeing a lot of this Cam Ward pro day.
00:44And I personally have been, you know,
00:47Cam Ward fan since day one.
00:48When I saw him tell Shador Sanders that he was soft
00:51because he requested water at practice,
00:53I knew that I had everything I needed at quarterback.
00:56And he just solidified that game one against the Gators
00:59and had arguably the best season I've ever seen
01:02from a quarterback at the University of Miami.
01:06He continues to impress.
01:07Please tell me what the hell happened yesterday.
01:11Well, one of the things that I really like,
01:13and I know I'm not the first person to bring this up
01:15because he was interviewed.
01:16It was either NFL Network or ACC Network.
01:19I was somehow watching both of them
01:20at the same time yesterday.
01:22But he, after one of the dimes
01:25that he threw in the workouts,
01:26you know, he ran by the Titans brass
01:29and all 32 teams were represented at Miami Pro Day.
01:32Now, only one of those can draft Cam Ward.
01:35The Titans are the team with the number one overall pick.
01:37And as he ran by the Titans brass,
01:40he said, I'm solidifying it today, he said.
01:43So he's got a little swag to go along with that.
01:46I think one of the things that, you know,
01:50I would say Cam has an advantage over Shadur is
01:57he can play multiple ways, right?
02:01And it's hard to tell whether Shadur can do that
02:06when he was throwing Travis Hunter.
02:09You see, and it's not saying that he can't,
02:12but just seeing, you know, the way Cam played,
02:16he extended plays, he had some timely throws,
02:19he threw the ball on time at points of the year.
02:23My only question is, some of the things that he does,
02:29he's not gonna be able to get away with.
02:31That lazy stroll outside the pocket,
02:38taking his time, almost going to a walk,
02:41he gonna get killed.
02:42Ooh, Cam?
02:43Yeah. Yeah.
02:45And so from that standpoint,
02:48I'm curious to see,
02:50is he playing the style of football that he can,
02:54or can he play the style of football
02:56that needs to be played?
02:58That's hard to tell when you take that next step.
03:03How, what are you hearing,
03:05or how's everybody talking about those things?
03:09Yeah, a couple of things on that.
03:10And again, I'm not saying you can simulate
03:13any of that in pro day.
03:14That's not what I'm saying here,
03:15but I know that the reps that Ward went through,
03:18a lot of the stuff was specifically
03:20what the Tennessee Titans wanted to see,
03:23like certain rollout situations, certain throws.
03:26So he did tailor his workout to what the NFL teams,
03:30especially the one that's probably gonna draft
03:32the number one overall.
03:33But of course, to what Leroy's saying,
03:35that's all happening without a pass rush,
03:38and it's happening without 11 on 11 happening on the field.
03:42To me, and there's so much to love about Cam Ward.
03:46I mean, you can see the arm talent, the football IQ,
03:50the off the field stuff.
03:51I mean, he has the type of personality
03:53and the type of leadership every NFL team
03:56would want in their locker room.
03:57There's probably never been such a thing
04:00as a perfect prospect, and obviously Ward is not perfect.
04:04So to me, just watching him the last year,
04:07and doing a deep dive on what he did at Washington State
04:10as well before he got to Miami,
04:12I would say that one of the concerns
04:15that you would have about Ward
04:17is also part of what makes him great.
04:20So it's hard to take this out of his game,
04:22but sometimes the decision-making
04:24and the risk-taking, Leroy,
04:26where, you know, because we saw it a few times with Miami.
04:29I mean, a couple of cross-body interceptions at a pick six,
04:33but also some incredible throws that he made cross-body
04:36that, hey, they're not gonna be completions
04:38if you don't try them, right?
04:40So he's a bit of a gunslinger,
04:42and I think there's good and bad
04:44to the gunslinger mentality.
04:46As far as getting away with being so lackadaisical
04:51in the pocket, that's gonna be an adjustment, Leroy,
04:53no question, because assuming he's gonna be
04:56a Tennessee Titan, but no matter what NFL team drafts him,
05:00you're probably not gonna be playing
05:02behind the type of offensive line
05:03that Miami had this past year,
05:05where sometimes you had six or seven seconds
05:08to just kind of hang back there and go through your reads.
05:11So everything's gonna have to be done a lot more quickly
05:14and decisively at the next level,
05:16and I know that that's, those are specific things
05:20that these NFL scouts and GMs that were out there,
05:24you know, want to, they've talked to Ward about that,
05:26they've gone through his film and the interviews,
05:28and they wanted to see him the best way you possibly can
05:31address some of that stuff in pro day,
05:33because if there's anything that makes Cam Ward,
05:36you know, an imperfect prospect,
05:38I think it would be some of the risks
05:40that he takes out there,
05:41which obviously you've got to kind of find,
05:44you know, you've got to identify within a second or two,
05:47is this risk worth the reward?
05:49Like that's what Ward is gonna have to show teams
05:51at the next level.
05:52Well, you just gotta, you just gotta know,
05:55sometimes quarterbacks have been very successful
06:00being risk takers and gunslingers,
06:02but they understood time and place.
06:05And I think that's the part of it that's hard to see
06:12or hard to determine when you have a guy
06:16that's coming into the league
06:18that played behind a better offensive line
06:20and had all day to throw the ball, you know,
06:23like cut that time in half, how good is Cam?
06:27You see, and that's kind of how you kind of,
06:29I'm more than sure that's how they are evaluating it,
06:33you know, not necessarily how lackadaisical he is, but.
06:41What?
06:43Made sense to me.
06:46That word kicked his ass, I'm not gonna lie to you.
06:48Oh my God.
06:52This is why we can't, this is why we can't do,
06:54this is why we can't have nice things.
06:56Woo.
06:58But anyway, you know, to be able to determine
07:02and kind of take that and move it up a stage in his career,
07:07what parts of that is he aware of
07:11and knows that he's not gonna be able to do
07:14versus, you know, what we see on Saturday?
07:21I think he's aware of all of it.
07:26You know, I think he did certain things
07:28while playing at Miami that I'm sure he understands
07:33that you've got to adjust your game to the NFL.
07:35And, you know, and it's funny,
07:37cause the other part, you know,
07:38the people would have been not me
07:40and probably not any of us,
07:42but I don't know if there were still any questions
07:44about why he sat down for the second half
07:47of the Pop-Tart Bowl,
07:48but that didn't seem to bother any of the 32 NFL teams
07:51that were out there scouting him.
07:52Wasn't that a, no.
07:55Let me ask you about that.
07:56That seems like that was a plan going into the game.
07:59Yeah, it was.
08:01It didn't sound like,
08:02they made it sound like it was a Tyreek situation
08:05where he came in at halftime and said,
08:06I'm not going back out.
08:08It seemed very,
08:09and just the way people reacted on the sidelines,
08:14it almost seemed like they were very aware
08:17of the plan going into it,
08:21but the coach didn't do him no favors
08:23when he was explaining it.
08:25Yeah, I thought he could have,
08:28Chris DeBall been a little bit more specific
08:30about it afterwards.
08:31Like, I can understand not saying before the game,
08:34like, oh, by the way,
08:35Ward's only going to play a half.
08:36Like, there's no reason to say that before the game,
08:38but right after the game,
08:40he could have said something
08:40because he didn't actually really address it,
08:42Chris DeBall, until a week or two later,
08:45he was on, I think ESPN being interviewed,
08:48and he kind of gave the full background there.
08:50He still really didn't, still really,
08:52like it would have been very easy to say,
08:54listen, we went into that game,
08:58we were going to play Cam
08:59because Cam really wanted to play.
09:01You go and say, he didn't want to sit out this game.
09:03He really wanted to play, right?
09:06But then we got to,
09:08what we planned on was getting a second half,
09:11give, we don't know who our quarterback
09:13is going to be next year,
09:14and we're going to give somebody an opportunity
09:16to play in a real game situation.
09:19And it's a good thing they let Emery play
09:21because that wasn't exactly the best audition.
09:24It probably reinforced-
09:25All I needed to see after that.
09:28I'm sure it reinforced the idea that,
09:30hey, if Carson Beck is available,
09:32we got to go out and get him.
09:33Oh man, breaking news, Juju Watkins.
09:36It was a season ending tourney, CL.
09:38Yeah, we knew that.
09:38They said it yesterday.
09:39But like, yeah.
09:43So I'm excited.
09:45Now, what do you think about the other thing
09:49that kind of drives me crazy?
09:51Like I'd fight like hell every year to say,
09:56in sports, every year is on a curve, right?
10:01Sometimes nine and two will win the division,
10:03sometimes eight and eight, whatever, right?
10:07It's the same thing for quarterbacks.
10:10These are the best two prospects at quarterback this year.
10:14I hate when people say,
10:15oh, if they were in any other draft,
10:17they wouldn't even be first rounders, right?
10:20And that's kind of a,
10:23that's terrible in its prospects that year.
10:28And have you heard a lot of people saying that,
10:31yeah, the quarterback talent,
10:33even though there's probably,
10:35there might be four guys going to first round, sneakily?
10:39Yeah, I mean, I think if Ward,
10:42because obviously a big topic with Ward was,
10:44if he had gone to the draft last year,
10:46he probably would have been a third day pick, right?
10:50Where now he's the number one pick.
10:51But I think that had more to do
10:54with what he just accomplished at Miami.
10:57So I think if Ward had been at Miami in 2023,
11:02instead of 2024, and just had the season he did,
11:04I think he'd be a high first round pick.
11:07I think a lot of it had to do with
11:09playing for Washington State,
11:10which was not a good team at all around him.
11:13He still put up big numbers,
11:14but Wazoo doesn't get the type of media attention
11:16that Miami gets.
11:17Like I think Ward, and I will also say,
11:19I think Ward did get better and developed a little bit more
11:22during his one year at Miami.
11:24So I think it has more to do with that.
11:25I think big reasons why Ward went from,
11:27let's say a fifth round pick to a first round pick,
11:31I think a lot of it had to do
11:32with what he accomplished on the field
11:33and not the other quarterbacks available.
11:35Because I would say that guys like Cam Ward
11:38and Shador Sanders,
11:39these would be top quarterback prospects, I think, any year.
11:42I don't think that's a specific thing
11:44to the quarterback class this year.
11:46I think Ward just made the most
11:48of his opportunity this season
11:49and got a chance to showcase his skills,
11:52where at Washington State,
11:53not a lot of people are paying attention.
11:55You think this is a,
11:57I think a lot of college kids are seeing
12:00these kids transfer and go get NIL in other places
12:04and then move up in draft while still getting paid.
12:07You think this will lend to guys staying an extra year or so
12:11because they're getting the NIL money
12:14and the draft, where they would get drafted
12:19wouldn't be as much money as they make NIL.
12:21So might as well go and try to improve their rating
12:26or their ranking.
12:28Yeah, it's already happening more.
12:30I know like someone I kind of expected would stay in school,
12:33but he decided not to was Quinn Ewers.
12:36Like I thought he was going to probably do another year.
12:37Well, because he wasn't going to play.
12:38He could have transferred.
12:39Well, he could have transferred somewhere else
12:41is what I'm saying.
12:42I think he could have transferred somewhere else,
12:43but still like Carson Beck,
12:45I know his decision was also partially injury driven
12:48because he wouldn't have been healthy
12:49to go through the pre-draft stuff.
12:51But this is another one who,
12:53we hear he's making plenty of NIL money at Miami
12:56who made that decision to come back another year.
12:58And honestly, Leroy, you framed it correctly.
13:02Why the heck not, right?
13:04Because you're probably,
13:06especially with the quarterback market
13:08going up and up every year in college,
13:11I mean, you are going to make more money,
13:14you know, your final year of college
13:15than you're going to make in your first year
13:17of a rookie contract in the NFL.
13:19Obviously NFL money, you know,
13:21becomes different your second contract
13:23and the, you know, all the repeated years,
13:25it's a different situation.
13:26But if you feel like you can raise your draft stock
13:30the way Cam Ward just did
13:31by playing one more year in college
13:33and you can also make seven figures while doing it.
13:36And that's seven figures above board,
13:38not, you know, the SEC bag men of 10 years ago,
13:41but you're making seven figures above board.
13:44I mean, why not put yourself in the best position
13:46to get drafted high?
13:47And I think Cam Ward is going to go down,
13:50especially once that happens, right?
13:52We're expecting him in about a month
13:53to be the number one overall pick.
13:55That's going to send a message to, you know,
13:57quarterbacks down the road that,
13:59hey, look what Cam Ward just did.
14:00Like this guy made himself millions of dollars,
14:03not only for the college NIL,
14:05but millions of dollars in the NFL draft
14:07by playing one more season in college.
14:09I think it's a great thing.
14:11Dono, you mentioned this guy's name
14:14and it seems like ever since he came down here,
14:17the things that I've been focused on
14:18is what he's been doing off the court,
14:21whether his car's been getting stolen,
14:23whether he's cheating on his girl
14:25or whatever rumors have been going around.
14:29Please make me feel better about Carson Beck.
14:32Is this guy, I know he won't be Cam Ward necessarily,
14:35but how big of a drop-off is he
14:37and are the Canes still poised to do anything
14:40with this man running the show?
14:43Well, okay, he's one of the most experienced
14:45quarterbacks in the country
14:47and he has two full plus seasons of starting experience
14:52in arguably the most prominent
14:55college football program in America,
14:57or top three or four right now at Georgia.
14:59Like there is nothing Carson Beck has not seen before.
15:03The guy is a senior.
15:04He's got a 24 and three record as a starter.
15:06Now I know wins and losses,
15:08that's not a strictly quarterback stat, right?
15:11So you have to hope that Miami,
15:13cause he even Cam Ward for,
15:15he just had like the best individual quarterback season
15:17I've ever covered,
15:18still didn't make the college football playoff.
15:20It wasn't his fault.
15:21That was the defense's fault.
15:23So Miami is trying to fix the defense.
15:26They've added a ton of new players
15:28and a ton of new coaches on that side of the football.
15:30And the players look good.
15:33We'll see what they do when the games actually count,
15:35but I think the defense looks better.
15:37The running game should be really good.
15:38The offensive line is gonna be just as good,
15:41if not better than the one that Cam Ward
15:43played behind last year.
15:44So the only thing that concerns me honestly about Beck,
15:47and it's not the girlfriend stuff.
15:50I mean, maybe it's better if he's single for a while,
15:52focus on football and doesn't have
15:54the TikTok girlfriend anymore.
15:56I'm not so concerned about that stuff
15:58cause he seems all focused on football right now.
16:00The only concern I would have is,
16:03he's not cleared to throw yet,
16:04coming off the elbow injury.
16:05So he's missing some time, right?
16:07He's missing opportunities to get reps in spring football.
16:10He could basically be cleared like any week.
16:13It could happen like right before spring ends
16:15or right after spring football.
16:18So he's gonna be fully available for summer stuff
16:20and fall camp and all that.
16:22But just like Beck not being able to throw right now
16:24is the only thing that's concerning to me.
16:26But at least if you're gonna be in this situation,
16:29at least you're in it with a guy
16:31who's got tons of experience and a 24 and three record.
16:34So you would think he could hit the ground running faster
16:38than like a sophomore quarterback
16:40who doesn't have a lot of experience.
16:41So at least he's got that working for him.
16:44Yeah, you're saying he doesn't have to be Cam Ward.
16:47He just has to be whatever remnants
16:49of what he's been these past couple of years.
16:51And the rest of the team has gotten better.
16:54Yeah, and Ward even said,
16:55like Cam was asked yesterday,
16:57like what would be his advice to Carson Beck?
17:01And part of that was just be yourself, right?
17:03Like don't try to be anyone else.
17:06And if you're getting hate out there,
17:08just win games and you'll silence the haters.
17:10So yeah, I mean, Beck needs to make this offense his own.
17:14And I know he's been very active going through meetings
17:18and he's out there in practice doing reps
17:20that don't involve throwing the football.
17:22So it's like he's engaged with the team,
17:25but I hope he's cleared to throw very soon
17:27because he needs to catch up with some of that stuff.
17:31Donnell, I wanna thank you for joining us as usual.
17:33By the way, Donnell joined us
17:35on the Toyota of Hollywood hotline.
17:38Shop over 2000 Toyotas on sale at one location,
17:41Toyota of Hollywood on 441 between Hollywood and Sheridan,
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17:46Donnell, I feel better about Carson Beck.
17:49I feel more informed about yesterday.
17:51I appreciate your presence as usual, good sir.
17:54I'm also glad you got the message
17:55of the color scheme we have going on.
17:58I see, everyone's very festive in regards to it.
18:02Even Vlad has his Yankees hat on,
18:06Leroy's wearing that shmedium.
18:07Everyone is just doing what they need to do today.
18:10Really?
18:12So I can't fat shame, but he can do that.
18:15Yeah, essentially, yeah.
18:17I mean, I think this is payback
18:18for everything you've done to him.
18:20It's pretty lackadaisical.
18:22It is indeed a little lackadaisical.
18:24Try it one more time.
18:26Lackadaisical?
18:28No, not you.
18:29No.
18:30No, Leroy can't do it.
18:31He's just gonna refuse to use that word anymore.
18:35I know what he was going for.