NFL Network’s Kurt Warner: Brock Purdy Is Playing as Well as Any NFL QB Right Now

Kurt Warner knows something about backup quarterbacks walking into the spotlight. So when Rich asked him what happens to a team when its young starter goes down, the Hall of Famer didn't give a pep talk. He gave a diagnosis.

The Giants were the first case. With word that Jaxson Dart would miss the year, Warner, who was in the radio booth for the game, said he had been hopeful at first because Dart "jumped into the air, so he wasn't planted." That hope faded. What stung more was the mood he had felt beforehand.

"You could just feel when I was talking to the coaches and the players before the game that they were building something," Warner said. "They were believing in what John Harbaugh was selling."

Warner called himself "a huge Jameis Winston fan," but he didn't pretend the relief outing went well. "He didn't look that part the other night. He didn't play very well at all." And that matters beyond the box score. "When you go from your starter to your backup and you see a definitive decline in the moment, that can really take the wind out of the sails of an entire locker room."

Rich widened the lens to Washington, where Marcus Mariota stepped in for Jayden Daniels, and Chicago, where Tyson Bagent was in concussion protocol and Case Keenum could be next up. Warner's answer was blunt about what those rosters are built on.

"The team is built around the playmaking of their quarterback. And that's the hardest thing to replace," he said. Keenum and Mariota can be "a really good complementary piece to your team, but it's hard to find another guy that can carry your team."

He rated Chicago as the better of the two, but not by a lot. "So much of these two teams, I believe, they're not great football teams. So much depends on that quarterback doing something extra." He pointed to the Bears' late comebacks last year, when Caleb had to make "those game-changing plays to get them a win."

A good team can plug in a backup and ask him to make the layups. Warner isn't sure any of these teams are in that position.

Asked who isn't getting enough attention, Warner didn't hesitate. "The biggest one has to be Brock Purdy."

He had just broken down Purdy's tape on his QB Confidential YouTube page, and his point was that the greatness is in the details. Purdy isn't 6'4" with a cannon arm. What he does is "set his feet," "throw with anticipation," "throw with touch when he needs to," and get "through the processing part of it really, really quickly."

"It doesn't look like wow to most people," Warner said. "Most people are like, oh, anybody in the league could make that throw, but it's how he does it and the consistency by which he does it that makes him unique and special."

He cited a stat that nobody has more 140-plus quarterback rating games in the first five years of a career than Purdy. "That's who he is, is that he's going to be consistently good." Warner's whole mission with the breakdown, he said, was to push "the recognition that I think he deserves."

Then came the question Chargers fans are asking. What isn't working with Justin Herbert in Mike McDaniel's offense?

"To me, it's so much about flow," Warner said. "It's really clunky. It doesn't seem to fit right now."

He admitted he had this question before the season. McDaniel's system, like the one in San Francisco, demands anticipation throws, layering balls "up and over linebackers." That's what Purdy does best and what made Tua Tagovailoa so good in Miami. Herbert, in Warner's read, is "a guy that likes to see it and drive the ball as opposed to try to find these windows."

"I'm not here to say Justin Herbert can't do it," he added. "I'm just here to say it hasn't been how he's played."

The fix, if it comes, might look like the offense the Chargers ran under Harbaugh last year: more of a dropback, layered approach where Herbert reads the flat defender and the play develops "a little bit slower," plus longer-developing play action instead of quick-hitting anticipation throws. And Warner was careful to say this isn't a Herbert-only problem. "There's not a lot of guys that are great in the Shanahan system in my opinion."

On the Buccaneers, Warner said the offense "looks disjointed." His explanation centered on one departure. Tampa watched Mike Evans age, understandably let him move on, and underestimated what he meant.

"I don't think you understand the value of that guy," Warner said. "The guy that can just make a quarterback better, a guy that a quarterback can depend on in those one-on-one situations."

Evans has already been "a huge addition for San Francisco" as the go-to outside target for Purdy. Meanwhile Baker Mayfield lacks "my safety net, my safety blanket." Add a defense that blitzes a lot and gives up big plays, and "everything has become harder for them offensively."

Rich forced a pick: which quarterback has taken off through two weeks, Bryce Young or Tyler Shough? Warner took Shough, while insisting he wasn't slighting Young.

"I just love the way he plays the game," Warner said of Shough, praising his technique and his "pressure plan," knowing where he wants to go on every snap. He liked what Shough did late in games, bringing his team back in the fourth quarter, even in a game where the two-point conversion failed and they lost by a point.

Rich then recalled sitting with Warner and Young in a Munich hotel conference room during the season Young was benched for Andy Dalton by Dave Canales. Now Young's receivers are producing, with Jalen Coker fifth in the league in receiving and Tetairoa McMillan ninth.

Warner connected Young's growth to Sam Darnold's. Stepping back from the spotlight, he said, lets a young quarterback "change their perspective." Darnold told Warner "something clicked" while sitting behind Purdy and around Kyle Shanahan. "I feel like Bryce did the same thing," Warner said. "Every year he's taking a step up."

Rich ran through the 1-1 quarterbacks, from Aaron Rodgers to Bo Nix, Jordan Love and Trevor Lawrence, and asked which one Warner trusts. "A lot of those guys I'm worried about," he said.

Pittsburgh "got dominated up front," and he worries about the weapons around Aaron. Drake Maye "really looks like he's lost a little bit of confidence." On the other side, he likes Daniel Jones as "a perfect complementary piece" alongside Jonathan Taylor and the run game.

On Nix, Warner shared a story Sean Payton told him. With Drew Brees, the move was to call a timeout and set up a play. With Nix, "we're not going to call a timeout. We're going to put the ball in his hands and just let him go and create." Warner loves the throws on the run but not the "impatience in the pocket," which he said "costs them opportunities."

The last question was whether the Vikings were right to put Kyler back in. Warner agreed. "He won the job before." Carson Wentz "has done a nice job," but "Minnesota knows who Carson is." The point this season is finding the quarterback of the future, so with Kyler healthy, "you have to play him again at least in the short term to see what he can be for your football team."

Rich signed off by noting Warner's QB Confidential page ticked from 109,000 to over 110,000 subscribers during the segment. Rich called it the Rich Eisen Show bump. Warner said he'd take it every Wednesday.