Kurt Warner believes that quarterback play is 'terrible right now'
“Quarterback play, I think, is terrible right now.”
Those were the words of former QB Kurt Warner on the most recent episode of Throwbacks with Matt Leinart and Jerry Ferrara. Warner knows a bit about the position having won two league MVP awards as well as a Super Bowl MVP and was a 2017 inductee into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
From Warner's perspective, the level of quality at the game's most prominent position has been in a steady decline and while multiple factors are to blame, there’s one in particular that the 4-time Pro Bowler was quick to point out.
“I think some of these guys are in bad spots because they're getting thrown in before they're ready to play just because they're supposed to be or because they're drafted high,” Warner explained. “I think we have some really good young quarterbacks, but they're not being put into situations to succeed or they're not being given the chance to sit a little bit and learn. And now they have to survive.”
In speaking with Leinart and Ferrara, Warner specifically cited two young quarterbacks whom he sees as having been put in a position to fail. “I look at Justin Fields as that,” Warner said. "They threw him in in Chicago and it was just ‘survive.’ You got to try to win while you're surviving without knowing what to do. Anthony Richardson, I think, is the same way. ‘You're a great athlete, figure it out while you go.’ And you can't learn that way. You just survive that way.”
In three seasons with the Bears, Fields compiled a record of 10-28 to go along with quarterback rating of just 82.3. Prior to the start of this season, he was shipped to Pittsburgh where he managed to win 4 of his 6 starts but was ultimately replaced by Russell Wilson. Richardson, meanwhile, missed most of his rookie season due to injury and was recently benched in favor of Joe Flacco after completing just 44.4% of his pass attempts.
The natural question then becomes how can you tell which young quarterbacks coming out of college have the tools to succeed? “You don't know until you know,” Warner noted. "We can assess them in a million different ways, but the game is different, and the speed is different. And I've seen great college quarterbacks that haven't been able to make that same type of transfer to the NFL because the game's just faster.”
While there is a great deal of uncertainty when it comes to the predictive methods of quarterback analysis, there is one trait that Warner places a high degree of value on, and it has nothing to do with physical talent. “I would sit in a room with them and give them a play and ask them why? Why would you read it here? What would you be looking at? Where would your eyes go if they gave you this coverage? Because that's what I want to know. I want to know how they think the game.”
As Warner sees it, talent may take you far, but reversing this trend of quarterback deterioration will surely take more than talent alone.
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