NFL Network’s Kurt Warner: How All-Pro G Quenton Nelson Impacts Seahawks’ O

Quenton Nelson's arrival in Seattle is not just about adding a great guard. According to Kurt Warner, it is about getting the Seahawks back to who they were.

Rich asked the NFL Network analyst to put a bow on the Nelson trade and explain how it affects Seattle's offense as a whole. Warner called it "obviously a great addition" and Nelson "a great football player for a long time." But his real point was about identity.

Warner credited Sam Darnold with a bounce-back game on Sunday night. "I thought he played really, really well," Warner said. Yet he didn't see Darnold's arm as the key to the win. "I thought the key to that game was their ability to run the football and have success."

That, Warner explained, is the blueprint. "That was really what they were built on last year. Great defense, run the football, and then play action and allow the pass game to be a complementary piece." He acknowledged that's a strange thing to say about an offense with JSN as "kind of the focal point of the whole offense." The point, he said, is that Seattle isn't built around "dropping back and throwing the ball 35 or 40 times."

Nelson fits that plan. "Interior of the offensive line makes them better," Warner said. He also hopes Seattle gets Price and Charbonnet back in the short term, "so they can get back to that blueprint that won them a championship a year ago." Assuming the injured players get healthy and Seattle leans into the style it showed Sunday night, Warner called the trade "a huge addition."

Then Rich flipped the lens to the team giving Nelson away. Had Warner ever been on a team that sold off pieces at the trade deadline? "No," Warner said. "I never was part of something like that."

He could still describe what it feels like in Indianapolis right now. "You start to see the writing on the wall," Warner said. "Your GM is fired. You start giving away pieces." Good players start asking for trades because the team is "playing for the future, not for now."

That is the hardest part for veterans, Warner said. Whether a team benches its starting quarterback or trades away key pieces, the veterans in the locker room know they don't have many chances at this. "I don't want to give up on a season only 7 weeks in," he said, voicing their perspective.

Warner believes the Colts have concluded they don't have the pieces to compete right now, and he was struck by who else is leaving. "I mean, forgot about Buckner. I mean, goodness gracious, you know, best defensive player as well."

The result, in Warner's eyes, is a locker room full of veterans looking at 10 games left while everyone around them is "basically saying, 'We're giving up on the season.'" His verdict: "It's just not a fun place to be for a veteran guy."