Tag: kurt warner

Kurt Warner believes Mitchell Trubisky deserves more time to develop with Bears

Bears QB Mitchell Trubisky has garnered a ton of criticism for his inconsistent performance. But there’s a Hall of Fame QB in his corner.

Bears quarterback Mitchell Trubisky has garnered a ton of criticism for his inconsistent performance over the last three seasons. But there’s a Hall of Fame quarterback that’s in his corner.

“All you see with Mitch is a lack of consistency,” Warner told Lou Canellis of Fox 32. “You see big moments, you see big throws, you see big plays where you go, man, bottle that up and we’re going to be just fine.”

But Warner said those moments aren’t enough for sustained success in the NFL. Especially when coupled with some of those moments that leave you shaking your head in disbelief.

Warner said for Trubisky, like all quarterbacks, the goal is to develop into a consistent quarterback with more upside than downside.

The question then becomes: How long should the Bears wait for Trubisky to develop into that quarterback? Or, will that even happen?

Trubisky will be entering his fourth season, and his seat is about as hot as a quarterback’s can get heading into the 2020 season. While general manager Ryan Pace has publicly committed to Trubisky as the Bears starter in 2020, we all know things can certainly change between now and the start of the season.

But if Pace does speak the truth, you have to believe that the Bears see something that we don’t — something that has them committed to Trubisky.

“I didn’t become the quarterback I was until 28 years old,” Warner said. “I had to play a lot of football, and it wasn’t in the NFL. But I played a lot of football in that time to learn how to play quarterback.”

It took Warner about six years to develop into the quarterback he was in the NFL. Warner also cited Drew Brees as another example of a quarterback that took some time to develop into the player he is today. Not that Trubisky is Kurt Warner or Drew Brees — we could only hope.

“There’s no timetable on how this thing works,” Warner said.

Which is true. Quarterback development isn’t linear. It’s easy to see overnight success stories like Patrick Mahomes or Lamar Jackson and want to see that same thing from guys like Trubisky. But sometimes, it takes quarterbacks some time to develop into the player they’re ultimately going to be.

But the only thing is, if Trubisky doesn’t show some kind of development in his fourth season, he might end up growing into the quarterback he’s going to be with another team.

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Kurt Warner comments on the Joe Burrow comparison, Bengals fans

Kurt Warner has some thoughts about the Joe Burrow comparison.

Potential No. 1 overall pick and future Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow recently got a Kurt Warner comparison.

Meaning, the next franchise passer in Cincinnati got compared to a Hall of Famer and two-time MVP-winner and Super Bowl champion. All very good.

But apparently, the author of the comparison, NFL.com’s Lance Zierlein, got wind of some Bengals fans being not-so-happy with that comparison and tweeted out his feelings on that spectrum of the reaction.

Warner himself then chimed in on the matter, noting some of his resume and wishing Burrow luck if fans really aren’t happy with that sort of comparison and production:

Of course, Bengals fans would be ecstatic with that sort of production. But this tends to be the portion of the offseason where even a vocal minority gets a massive amplifier in situations like this, much like unfounded speculation like Burrow not even wanting to go to the Bengals makes the rounds.

Personally, we haven’t heard from one Bengals fans irritated by the comparison. But no matter who the compared pro is — it could even be Tom Brady — at least somebody will take some sort of issue with it.

Point being, the Bengals haven’t won a playoff game since 1990. They smart majority would take Warner as he is now if it meant ending the drought.

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Joe Burrow gets a Kurt Warner comparison

The possible Bengals draft pick gets compared to a Hall of Famer.

The Cincinnati Bengals will get a close look at Joe Burrow during the upcoming Scouting Combine as the LSU star is one of the many quarterbacks set to attend.

Ahead of the event, scouting reports have started to make their way public, including one from NFL.com’s Lance Zierlein.

We already broke down what Burrow’s pre-combine grade means (hint: it’s very good). It’s also worth noting that the report compares Burrow to…Kurt Warner.

A blurb from the evaluation:

“People’s champ with rags-to-riches story arc culminating in one of the greatest one-year turnarounds in sports history. He’s self-assured and plays with competitive toughness that teammates will gravitate toward instantly. He’s a rhythm passer who benefited from tempo and scheme, but his vision, touch and read recognition made the offense special. He buys time for himself inside the pocket, but creates explosive, off-schedule plays outside of it with his arm or legs. He throws with staggering precision and timing, but he recognizes his own arm-strength constraints and is forced to shrink the field accordingly.”

Warner, by the way, is a Hall of Famer, Super Bowl MVP and champ and two-time MVP winner, among other notables on the resume.

Player comps are just one of many tools evaluators use to nail down a report for a player. Warner won’t be the only comp and not only that, he’s far from the last.

But hearing the quarterback a team is likely to draft compared to a Hall of Famer is pretty great, right?

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Ex-Giant Kurt Warner will be focus of new Lionsgate biopic

Former New York Giants QB Kurt Warner will be the focus of a new Lionsgate biopic that should be in theaters by December.

Pro Football Hall of Famer Kurt Warner’s life story is one that was made for Hollywood. An undrafted free agent that worked as a grocery clerk to make ends meet who goes onto football fame, making the most of his opportunities along the way.

Well, Hollywood is finally getting around to making that Warner biopic. Lionsgate has employed the writer of Friday Night Lights on the project which is currently named “American Underdog: The Kurt Warner Story.”

From NJ Advance Media:

“American Underdog: The Kurt Warner Story” will be the next film from the Erwin Brothers, Jon Erwin and Andrew Erwin, and their Kingdom Story Company banner. The movie will be fast-tracked for production by Lionsgate and slated for wide release on December 18, 2020. Casting is underway now for the film, including for leads Kurt Warner and his wife Brenda Warner.

“American Underdog” will follow the life story of Warner from a young man stocking shelves at a supermarket and undrafted free agent in the NFL to how he became a two-time NFL MVP quarterback for the St. Louis Rams, Arizona Cardinals and New York Giants.

Warner played most of his career in St. Louis, where he took the Rams to back-to-back Super Bowls, winning one. His stint with the New York Giants was short — just a year — but it was an integral nine-game one that bridged the gap for the Eli Manning era. He then took the Cardinals to their first Super Bowl, only to lose to the Pittsburgh Steelers in the final minute on an impossible catch by Santonio Holmes.

Warner has always been a positive guy, a family guy and role model. A film of his life is long overdue. No word on who might play Warner, or any other real-life character, in the project.

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Movie about former Rams QB Kurt Warner coming to theaters

Lionsgate is working on a movie about the life of Kurt Warner.

The story of Kurt Warner’s path to becoming an all-time great NFL player is being turned into a movie. According to Variety, Lionsgate is developing a biopic about Warner that will hit theaters on Dec. 18.

It’s titled “American Underdog: The Kurt Warner Story.”

Warner issued a statement on the announcement, sharing his excitement about the project and being able to bring his story to a wide audience beyond just football fans.

“For the longest time I dreamed of having a story similar to many of my heroes, but as my journey began to stray further and further from that path, I wondered, ‘Why me?’ As I look back on that journey now, I believe I am finally able to answer that question,” Warner said. “I believe God has taken me on this journey to inspire others that no matter what life may throw at you, your dreams can still come true. I am extremely excited to be working with Lionsgate and the Erwin Bros. to bring this story to life on the big screen, in hopes of encouraging all who see it to never stop believing in themselves and what God can do with them!”

Warner’s path to football stardom wasn’t comparable to most players. He wasn’t a first-round pick who went on to have success early and eventually made it to the Hall of Fame. He went undrafted in 1994, played three seasons in the Arena Football League from 1995-1997, made a stop in NFL Europe with the Amsterdam Admirals and eventually landed with the Rams in 1998.

He led them to a title in Super Bowl XXXIV, won two NFL MVP awards in 1999 and 2001 and made four Pro Bowls. Warner went on to become one of the greatest undrafted players in NFL history, being inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2017.

The film will be based on interviews with Warner, according to Variety, and center around his memoir, “All Things Possible: My Story of Faith, Football, and the First Miracle Season.”

Even Kurt Warner couldn’t do what Patrick Mahomes did this year

Mahomes was 5-0 this past season when the Chiefs fell behind by 10 or more points. Warner only won two such games his entire Hall of Fame career.

If there is one thing that we know about the NFL right now, it is that Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes is the best quarterback in the NFL. He was the league MVP in 2018 in his first year as a starter, throwing 50 touchdown passes and more than 5,000 yards. He followed that up in 2019 with a Super Bowl championship and Super Bowl MVP.

Along the way, he had to overcome deficits and was special. In all three games in the postseason, he led the Chiefs to victories after falling behind by at least 10 points.

He was truly special when the team needed him to be. This stat is scary good and something that not even Hall of Fame quarterback Kurt Warner, who led two teams to three Super Bowls, could do.

This stat comes from ESPN’s Trey Wingo. Mahomes was 5-0 this past season (regular season and postseason) when the Chiefs trailed by 10 points or more at any point in a game. That is truly incredible because Warner was 2-44 his entire career.

What Mahomes did this past season is unthinkable.

Coming back from two-score deficits is very difficult to do. Warner was 76-53 for his entire career as a starter, including the postseason. 44 of those losses game if his team trailed by 10 points or more.

Quarterbacks just don’t do that.

Kyler Murray went 0-9-1 in games where the Cardinals fell behind by 10 points or more.

Mahomes is on another level. Not only did he lead the Chiefs to five such wins, they never lost with him at quarterback and they fell behind.

It is clear that Mahomes is great. But he is truly doing things that no one else has.

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Listen to the latest from Cards Wire’s Jess Root on his podcast, Rise Up, See Red. Subscribe on Apple podcasts or Stitcher Radio.

Ep. 256

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Ep. 255

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Kurt Warner: Giants’ Daniel Jones still has a ways to go

Kurt Warner believes New York Giants QB Daniel Jones still has a ways to go and needs to work on his ability to process information.

Former New York Giants quarterback and Pro Football Hall of Famer, Kurt Warner, knows a few things on how to be successful in the NFL. He also knows that success does not come overnight.

That’s his warning to Giant fans when it comes to second-year quarterback Daniel Jones. Warner believes Jones has the tools to be a top passer in the league but still has some hurdles to clear before he can do that.

“His ability to see the field and process information,” Warner told NJ Advance Media when asked the area Jones must show the most improvement in. “There were a lot of times, it seemed like it was tough for him to see, process information, and react to it. That’s what you see with a lot of young quarterbacks. It’s really hard to practice that. That’s where he needs to make the biggest strides.”

Jones was responsible for 23 turnovers in 2019, throwing 12 interceptions on top of 11 lost fumbles in 13 games, 12 as a starter. Warner said there was enough good to outweigh the bad and put a positive spin on Jones’ rookie season.

“I liked a lot of what Daniel did,” Warner said. “He had a lot of ups and downs. He had some moments where you got really excited, and as much of anything, you hope you see games or moments where you go ‘ahh, I think this guy’s got it, that was definitely the right pick,’ and we definitely saw that with Daniel Jones.”

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Kurt Warner believes Eli Manning belongs in the Hall of Fame

Add Kurt Warner to the growing list of retired NFL superstars who believe New York Giants QB Eli Manning is deserving of the Hall of Fame.

It’s been a little more than a week since the world learned that New York Giants great Eli Manning was calling it a career after 16 seasons spent entirely with the Giants.

For years, even before his career was coming to a close, the debate over whether or not Manning belongs in the Hall of Fame was hotly contested.

Former teammate and Hall of Famer himself, Kurt Warner, added his name to that debate this week and he believes Manning belongs in Canton.

Warner, of course, was the Giants starting quarterback at the beginning of the 2004 season before Manning came in with seven games remaining to officially begin the Eli era.

Warner was pretty clear in his opinion on Manning’s Hall of Fame Status:

“It is such a weird process of going into the Hall of Fame and what all goes into making someone a Hall of Fame player,” Warner told SNY’s Ralph Vacchiano in Miami. “But, when you look at quarterbacks, you look at stats — that’s the era that we live in. And when you look at stats, without question Eli Manning has the stats to be in the Hall of Fame.”

Manning’s resume is most well-know for two postseason runs which both resulted in a Lombardi trophy. However, his stats also put him in elite class in many of the major quarterback stat categories.

“I think if you go back to when I met Eli, I might say, ‘Yeah, I was surprised at how it played out,’ but the one thing I can remember from my time being there was how consistent he was. How even he was in the way he dealt with being the No. 1 overall pick and being thrown in at a time when we weren’t a great football team and he had some struggles early,” Warner said.

As Warner pointed out, Manning was the model of consistency and being the NFL’s iron man for much of his career is a big part of how Manning will be remembered. Manning handled his career with nothing but class from beginning to end.

Warner was also asked about the two young quarterbacks in New York — Daniel Jones and Sam Darnold:

“I don’t believe we know the answer to that question yet, is that both of those guys have shown some great promise in the early period of their career,” Warner said when asked who is better. “But bottom line is who are they at the end of their career? What do they become? All great quarterbacks have an evolution process and continue to get better year in and year out throughout their career.”

The Giants, of course, passed on Sam Darnold in favor of Saquon Barkley at second overall in the 2018 NFL Draft. They ended up with Daniel Jones in last year’s draft, and both Darnold and Jones both look like talented thus far.

Time will tell which New York quarterback ends up being the better of the two, but you can bet the debate will go on for years.

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Kurt Warner: Garoppolo can make big plays, but he must avoid big mistakes

Hall of Fame quarterback Kurt Warner believes that Jimmy Garoppolo can make big plays, but has to be better avoiding the killer mistake.

One of the primary questions surrounding Super Bowl LIV is how much 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan will take the training wheels off the passing game and let Jimmy Garoppolo throw the ball at all. In San Francisco’s 37-20 win over the Packers in the NFC Championship game, Garoppolo threw the ball just eight times, completing six passes for 77 yards. Per NFL Research, that made the 49ers the third team of the Super Bowl era (the 1971 and 1973 Miami Dolphins were the others) to finish a playoff game with fewer than 10 passing attempts.

“Got to talk to Kyle or something,” Garoppolo said when asked what he’d need to do to get more throws. “I mean, we were running the hell out of the ball tonight. It made my life very easy back there. I think we had, like, eight pass attempts. A fun night.”

Fun then. Perhaps not as fun against a Chiefs team that can put a points explosion up on any defense seemingly at will these days. If the Chiefs and Patrick Mahomes are doing that against San Francisco’s defense — and it’s entirely probable that they will — it could be up to Garoppolo to make the difference.

And that’s where things could get weird. In the 49ers’ 27-10 divisional win over the Vikings, Garoppolo made two first-half mistakes when diagnosing coverage by linebacker Eric Kendricks. One was a near-interception that wasn’t, only because tight end George Kittle made an amazing play to break it up…

…and one was an interception, presumably because Kittle wasn’t around.

In the first half of that Vikings win, Garoppolo completed eight of 13 passes for 105 yards and a touchdown, and he threw that interception. In the second half, though the 49ers were only up 14-10 at that point, Garoppolo attempted just six passes, completing three for 26 yards. That was the beginning of the Great Garoppolo Caper (Where’s he hiding?!?!?), and as Hall of Fame quarterback Kurt Warner said on Thursday, it will now be up to Shanahan’s quarterback to balance the ability to make big plays with the need to avoid game-killing mistakes. I have expressed my own concerns about Garoppolo’s potential to do so, and given a few bits of schematic advice that might help (not that Shanahan needs it), and Warner, when asked if Garoppolo can deliver if asked in the biggest moment of his career to date, saw both sides of the equation.

(Aaron Doster-USA TODAY Sports)

“I definitely think he can deliver. My biggest thing with Jimmy is that, not that he can’t make every throw in bog moments… but there are times where he seems to, with play-action and the things they try to do to attack the field, sometimes he misses defenders. Either his vision gets clouded, or he’s so focused in trying to make the throw, he misses guys.

“Kind of like the game a couple weeks ago [against the Vikings]: They had a couple of opportunities for easy interceptions. They made one, and they didn’t make the other. I believe there will be a few of those plays for Jimmy in this game. I think that’s where he’s at as a quarterback. He’s done really good things, and he’s really good in the moment, but he’s just not there yet at seeing and deciphering and playing the game in that direction.

“I’m not worried that if they need him to play well, he can play well. The question is, are there going to be in this game… there might be one play. There might be one throw, and that throw could be the difference-making play in a Super Bowl. Do the Chiefs make that play? Can Jimmy avoid that [negative] play? That to me is a bigger question than, do I think he can make enough plays to win? Yeah, I definitely think that.”

It’s clear that Garoppolo has the talent to make those big plays. It’s also clear that he hasn’t quite developed in his skill set to the point where you can trust him to go off the hook at a Patrick Mahomes level. Warner’s opinion is justifiably higher when it comes to Mahomes; Garoppolo’s mission will be less to prove the doubters wrong than to confirm the belief that he can indeed become one of the NFL’s best quarterbacks.

Touchdown Wire editor Doug Farrar previously covered football for Yahoo! Sports, Sports Illustrated, Bleacher Report, the Washington Post, and Football Outsiders. His first book, “The Genius of Desperation,” a schematic history of professional football, was published by Triumph Books in 2018 and won the Professional Football Researchers Association’s Nelson Ross Award for “Outstanding recent achievement in pro football research and historiography.”

Kurt Warner: Patrick Mahomes ‘may be the most complete quarterback we’ve ever seen’

Hall of Famer Kurt Warner has seen enough of Patrick Mahomes to believe that the Chiefs quarterback may be the best ever someday.

MIAMI — Only Dan Marino threw more touchdown passes (78) than Patrick Mahomes (76) did in his combined second and third seasons, which have been Mahomes’ two seasons as the Chiefs’ full-time starter. Add in the eight touchdown passes Mahomes has already thrown in the 2019 playoffs, and the three he threw against the Patriots in the 2018 AFC Championship game, and it’s clear that he’s one of the most remarkable young quarterbacks in NFL history.

If you go a bit further down that list, you’ll see that Andrew Luck and Jeff Garcia are tied for third at 63 touchdown passes, and Kurt Warner ranks fourth with 62. Warner had to bounce around before he finally found his opportunity with the Rams of the late 1990s, but he eventually put things together well enough to be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Warner studies today’s quarterbacks at a very high level, and he’s always interesting to talk to on the subject.

Aug 5, 2017: Former quarterback Kurt Warner poses with his bust during the Professional Football HOF enshrinement ceremonies at the Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium. (Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports)

I asked Warner on Thursday if there are things Mahomes does that he’s never seen a quarterback do, and Warner took it in a different (and interesting) direction.

“I would say no — we’ve seen quarterbacks do a lot of these things. I wonder, and he’s still young, but I wonder if we’ve never seen the entire package like we’ve seen with Patrick Mahomes. He’s got the freaky athleticism and arm talent of an Aaron Rodgers, he’s got the ability to be accurate and play in the pocket like other great quarterbacks, and the thing for me that separates him is the ability to creatively see the game, which is very unique. There are only a few guys I know of who have been able to do those sorts of things.

“When you put it all together, and there’s a lot to be determined yet, I do think there is the potential for him to be the most complete quarterback we may have ever seen.”

That’s extremely high praise from one of the greatest quarterbacks of his own era, and someone who helped to change the ways in which the game is played in ways that benefit Mahomes and his compatriots today. Warner’s career was a testament to total quarterback development against great odds — he was famously rejected by multiple NFL teams, had to find his way through NFL Europe and the Arena League, and finally found his way as the Rams’ starting quarterback, winning both NFL and Super Bowl MVP awards, in 1999 at age 28.