NFL Network’s Kurt Warner Breaks Down Eagles’ Lack of Continuity on Offense

Kurt Warner was on the radio call in Chicago when Case Keenum snuck into the end zone on a play with both guards pulling and the quarterback splitting the gap. He recognized it instantly. It was the exact Mike Martz play Warner scored on in the Super Bowl against the Patriots in 2001.

"Did he just steal that from Mike Martz and our Super Bowl team?" Warner remembered saying on air. He noted that Ben Johnson and Martz have spent a lot of time together, and that elements of the Greatest Show on Turf show up weekly on Johnson's tape. Rich added that Bill Belichick was still annoyed about that play years later in a broadcast meeting. Warner, for his part, laughed that his lone Super Bowl touchdown was "this sucker sneak deal."

The nostalgia was the warmup. Warner, who is headed to London to call Colts and Commanders on NFL Network with Dave Pasch and Jason Kelce, had plenty to say about the state of the league.

Start with Drake Maye. Rich asked about the Patriots quarterback's crisis of confidence after the performance in Jacksonville, and Warner compared it to the yips, the baseball phenomenon where a second baseman suddenly cannot make the throw to first.

"It really looks like he has lost his confidence, that he is second-guessing everything that's happening on the football field," Warner said. Last season, when Maye was the MVP runner-up, he was "very definitive." Now, Warner sees the opposite: receivers open and Maye refusing to let it fly. Even on the right reads, he said, Maye is not throwing with authority.

"It's almost like, I don't want to miss," Warner said. "He's trying to set the ball in there. And every time he does that, it's going the wrong direction."

Warner floated an idea Steve Mariucci shared on their show: practices where quarterbacks are forbidden from checking the ball down. He also passed along the advice he once gave his son EJ during a slump. "Trust your eyes. When you see it, you rip it. And if it's a bad play, you line up the next time and you do it again."

Down the Acela line in Philadelphia, Warner saw the Eagles up close on Monday night, and what he saw was a lack of continuity. There were two drives, including a 97-yarder after a fourth-down stop of the Bears, that "looked like it has looked a couple years ago in Philly." Then it disappeared. "They just can't sustain it up front," he said.

Warner said he took a lot of grief on GMFB for suggesting the Eagles miss A.J. Brown, and he did not back off it here. What Brown gave them was a true X receiver, the guy alone on one side who wins every one-on-one. He pointed to Joe Burrow and Ja'Marr Chase, and to the Raiders isolating Brock Bowers last week. DeVonta Smith is "a really good wide receiver," Warner said, but the Eagles like him inside in tight splits rather than on an island.

Should Eagles fans be nervous? "I think you should be a little bit worried," Warner said. Philadelphia is 2-1, but the wins came in a close game against Washington and a comeback against Tennessee. He compared the pattern to the Cowboys, who keep changing coordinators and personnel and still look the same. "Why does it continue to go sideways for this football team," he asked, "with all the talent they've got?"

The Cowboys came up directly too. Rich asked about the end of the Rio game against Baltimore: third and goal, Dak Prescott throws the ball into the stands, and the coach says afterward he over-coached his quarterback, with George Pickens never getting a shot.

Warner's theory is that bad memories travel around the league fast. He brought up the Cardinals running back who dropped the ball at the 1-yard line a year ago and became a teaching tape everywhere, and Maye's opening-night interception when the Patriots could have kicked a tying field goal. "Okay, don't do a Drake Maye here," Warner imagined going through Prescott's head.

"I couldn't believe he didn't give him some kind of a chance," Warner said. "It seemed like something like that was going on in his mind, that he was overconscious of don't make a bad mistake." The result was a red zone trip that ended without a real attempt at a touchdown, which is the part Dallas is left kicking itself over.

The biggest news of the week was J.J. McCarthy heading from Minnesota to the Giants. Rich asked whether the Vikings saw enough from Kyler Murray to trade away depth, or simply saw enough of McCarthy. Warner said it was the latter. Murray has played essentially one game, and Warner was not sure he played great against the Bucs even in a win.

"You tried it, it hasn't worked," Warner said. He also wondered how all the talk affects a locker room when a quarterback goes from starter to third string, and concluded Minnesota decided it was "probably best for everybody to just cut our ties."

Warner was not surprised by the speed, though he wishes it were different. He did not think McCarthy was ready to carry a team coming out of Michigan, and the mechanical deficiencies were still there when he started. But McCarthy is young, and Warner pointed to Bryce Young and Sam Darnold as quarterbacks who blossomed after time away from the spotlight. Young told Warner that watching Andy Dalton prepare helped him see everything "from a different lens."

So what do the Giants do with McCarthy? Rich noted the trade only happened because Jaxson Dart got hurt, with Jameis Winston available to start. Warner sees a move for now and for later. McCarthy cost a fifth-round pick, and Warner believes the Giants have some concern about how often Dart has been injured.

"This is an opportunity for them to have two guys that were drafted really high," Warner said. "Let them compete and figure out what's going to happen in the future." He added that if the Giants only needed a seat-warmer, they would have traded for a Joe Flacco type instead.

Rich teased that Marshall Faulk was rubbing off on him, since letting quarterbacks compete like any other position is a regular Faulk refrain. Warner leaned in. "What's wrong with that? Let's go compete. Let's let them earn the job," he said, adding that winning the locker room is a huge part of it. The plan, as he sees it, is to get McCarthy up to speed so he can compete and play in this league for a long time.

To close, Rich asked which quarterback had the best Week 3 on film. Warner went with players few people are talking about. Kirk Cousins was "definitive" with more pop in his arm than in Week 1, and Warner loved that Fernando Mendoza gets to watch him run the offense. Keenum went 11 for 12 on play action and 11 for 11 against the blitz. Tyler Shough played the best game Warner has seen from him, even in a chaotic loss to the Raiders.

That led to the last question: is Warner in the Raiders-are-for-real camp at 3-0? He admitted he called them fake on Sunday and heard it from Raiders Nation. He is not fully convinced, but he is more convinced, largely because Bowers is back.

"I don't know if I'm buying that they're a contender for a championship," Warner said, "but they are better than I thought they would be, and they're better than I gave them credit for a week ago."