Chris Long is already sold on Cam Ward. He thinks Netflix is about to sell everyone else.
On his Green Light podcast, the former NFL defensive end made the case that Ward’s spot on the show — which premieres July 14 alongside Jayden Daniels, Baker Mayfield, and Joe Flacco — is going to accelerate him into being one of the most popular players in the league. And it’s not hard to see why Long is bullish on that. Ward is the first rookie the show has ever followed; he’s got one of the best backstories in recent NFL Draft history, and if his personality translates on camera the way Long thinks it will, the timing is perfect.
“I think that Cam Ward is going to be one of the most popular NFL football players by the end of his second year in the league, because I just think he’s got ‘it,'” Long said. “I love the dude.. He’s such a f*cking adult, dude. He’s such an adult, but he’s still interesting, and he has a howitzer for an arm.”
Chris thinks Netflix’s season 3 of Quarterback will send Cam Ward’s popularity skyrocketing 📈 pic.twitter.com/5lnAZjIsvr
— Green Light with Chris Long (@greenlight) May 18, 2026
Ward came into Nashville as arguably the least hyped No. 1 overall pick in recent memory — a zero-star recruit out of high school who bounced through Incarnate Word and Washington State — before becoming a Heisman finalist at Miami and going first overall to the Titans. A six-part Tubi docuseries on his journey dropped before his rookie season even started, which at the time raised questions about whether the coverage was outrunning the player. His rookie season was uneven, as he showed flashes of the arm talent that made him the pick, mixed with plenty of growing pains. But that’s exactly the kind of material Quarterback has always been built around. The show works because it finds the human story within a season, not the highlight version.
“I’m biting the cheese on Cam Ward being on this show,” Long added. “I think it’s going to be great for him. And I think this show is actually going to be very interesting this year.”
Starting July 14, the rest of the world gets to decide if Long is right.
About Sam Neumann
Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.