Quarterback Kurt Warner #13 of the Arizona Cardinals (Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)
Quarterback is widely considered the toughest position to play in football, and it comes down to more than just personal ability.
The scheme, landing with the right team, how early or late a player is drafted, supporting cast, coaching staff, and countless other factors all play a role in whether a signal-caller can be truly successful at the next level.
We recently spoke with former NFL star quarterback Kurt Warner about the state of the quarterback position and where the league is headed regarding it.
“It’s not easy. So many things have to come together to find the right spot,” Kurt Warner said exclusively to RG. “Especially if you’re a lower-drafted, free agent guy.”
There have been multiple trends at quarterback, with one of the latest being teams picking traits-based prospects who don’t necessarily have a proven floor. Trey Lance and Malik Willis are among the most recent to not fully pan out the way they were expected to.
Both players had sky-high expectations after Lance was selected by the San Francisco 49ers at No. 3 overall in the first round of the 2021 NFL Draft, and Willis picked up by the Tennessee Titans at No. 86 overall in the third round of the 2022 NFL Draft.
Neither are currently NFL starters, and this is a product of the issue of teams placing too much emphasis on physical traits, what can be done on the ground and flashy things outside of game management. But the need for a high floor and what a quarterback can do first and foremost being accurate from the pocket seems to have been overlooked over recent years.
Warner looks for a “layup” quarterback, which he defines as a signal-caller who can play well in structure, is on-time, reads the defense quickly and makes throws accordingly.
“I still believe the teams that are in the best position to win every week and the quarterbacks who are best in the league are the guys who play inside the pocket first,” Warner said. “The guys who play on-schedule. The guys that can make the layups.”
In Warner's eyes, having a Howitzer for an arm, being able to play Houdini on the ground, and lighting out for a 50-yard rushing touchdown are all great things to have in a quarterback, but the essential foundation has got to be there as well.
“All that other stuff is unbelievable. It’s great to watch and it will give you two or three special plays a game, but that still doesn’t make up for the missed plays if you can’t make them,” Warner said.
“That, to me, is where we get it wrong. We are looking and saying ‘oh my gosh, we can get three or four extra plays out of this guy, because he’s so athletic,’ where they’re not taking into consideration as much, ‘oh, but are we gonna miss five, six, seven, ten plays because he’s not accurate with the football or he can’t see a read that he needs to make, or whatever that thing is, because that, to me, continues to be how you win.”
There are several quarterbacks in the league, like the Ravens’ Lamar Jackson, who have perfected the art of doing things off-schedule, but getting the job done on-schedule is what matters most. It’s because of Jackson’s consistent improvement in this area, in addition to being a superior runner, that he’s maintained a status as one of the NFL’s greatest quarterbacks.
“I don’t care who you are, you can be Lamar Jackson, who is as good off-schedule as anybody in the league, you’re still going to be less efficient off-schedule than you are on-schedule,” Warner said.
“When you see it and you’re in rhythm and you can hit it and you can take the things that are right in front of you. That, to me, is what has been lost, is how important being on-schedule, making the layups, playing the game and allowing the game and the guys around you to work for you.”
Warner says that after a quarterback has all those things in terms of operating from the pocket clearly in his toolbox, then we can begin to appreciate the “extra.”
“Then adding the extra, as opposed to us saying, ‘how many extras can they give us, and then we’ll try to teach them and get as many layups as we can out of them, I think we’re looking at it the wrong way,’” Warner said.
Warner says that when looking at quarterbacks, not enough people “count apples to apples.”
“They don’t see a guy miss a slant route and say, oh, that’s equal to when he runs around and gives me a 25-yard run that nobody else could make. They don’t look at it the same way.”
“But, I do. Both of them are first downs, both of them continue a drive. And, maybe more importantly, it keeps you on rhythm and on-schedule so you’re not having to play make up nearly as often and that’s where you get behind in the NFL, is when you have to start playing make up football instead of playing on-schedule.”
It will be interesting to see how the league continues to shift in quarterback drafting, but it’s worth reconsidering how the term “game manager” is perceived and perhaps going back to the basics strongly before getting so caught up in the flashing lights.
Crissy Froyd is a sports reporter of over 10 years who specializes in quarterback analysis at the high school, college and NFL level. She was mentored by Mike Leach and learned the Air Raid offense and quarterback evaluation largely under the legendary head coach. Froyd has appeared in and worked with multiple publications, including USA TODAY SMG, Sports Illustrated, NBC Sports and Saturday Down South. She also covers canine journalism for Showsight Magazine and resides in Wisconsin with her three dogs -- two German Shepherds named Faxon and Bo Nix, and one Siberian Husky named Stetson "Balto" Bennett.
