NFL Network’s Kurt Warner: It’s Too Soon for Raiders to Start Fernando Mendoza

Kurt Warner has been home about seven days in the first seven weeks of the season, and he squeezed in a workout before flying to Paris. He still found time to tell Rich exactly why half the NFL's preseason darlings are stuck in the mud, and why one quarterback just played the best game of his career by throwing it short.

Warner joined The Rich Eisen Show on Tuesday instead of his usual Monday slot. Rich opened by asking whether the game in Paris was still on, given everything going on there. Warner said that as of the day before, everything he'd been told pointed to business as usual, and the plan was to see what it's like on the ground.

Rich flipped his usual order and asked for the best quarterback Warner saw on film this week. His pick was C.J. Stroud, for a back-and-forth game in London. "He made some really special throws in that game," Warner said. "They won that game with offense, not defense." He also gave nods to Josh Allen, Kirk Cousins and Brock Purdy, who he said "continues to play good football" on Monday Night Football.

That set up the first big question. Warner landed in Arizona because the Giants decided to hand the job to first overall pick Eli Manning even though they were winning with a veteran. Could the same thing happen in Las Vegas with Cousins and Fernando Mendoza?

"In my opinion, I don't think they should as of yet," Warner said. He was blunt that the Raiders are "not a great football team," but said Cousins is a key piece making them competitive every time out. "It's too early right now, with how competitive and how well Kirk is playing, to go to Fernando just yet." Being competitive matters, he argued, for guys like Maxx Crosby and for a first-time head coach.

Warner remembered how the veterans felt when New York made the switch. The Giants were 5-4. "Technically, we would've been in the playoffs," he said. "So many players are like, 'Hey, I'm not worried about the future right now. I'm worried about now.'"

Rich noted the Raiders went from 3-0 to losing three straight, with the Rams up next. Warner used his own Arizona years to explain why close losses are not wasted. People look at 2005 and 2006 as lost years, he said, but those seasons built the belief that paid off in '07, '08 and '09, the playoffs and the Super Bowl. "Learning how to be competitive, and when you fall behind in the game to be able to fight back," he said, "those are real things that don't just come because you have a good football team."

Those Rams were supposed to be a homecoming story, but they're 2-4, banged up in a home loss to the Cardinals and now without Davante Adams and Poona Ford. Warner's diagnosis was physicality. Yes, they can throw it, with good weapons outside and the reigning MVP at quarterback. But what made them great was running the football, especially in the red zone. "I don't see that right now," he said. "I see them trying to throw the ball all over, not hanging their hat on the run game."

The defense has the same problem. Warner pointed to the pass rush the Rams had with Aaron Donald, and the reason they brought in Myles Garrett. "Right now I just don't see that at the same level with this team," he said. Without finishers on either side, "that's where you end up losing games like they lost this past weekend."

Seattle, at 3-3, got the same treatment, and it came with a pointed take on Sam Darnold. "I think Sam is a good starting quarterback," Warner said. "I don't believe Sam is an elite starting quarterback or a franchise guy." His definition of franchise guy is one who can "carry you with their right arm" when everything else fails. Darnold, in his view, is better as a complementary piece.

The problem is that he can't be one this year. No Kenneth Walker, no Zach Charbonnet, the one-two punch that let Seattle run, run, play action and get it to JSN. Now more falls on Darnold, and on feeding JSN when defenses focus on stopping him. Rich, naturally, caught the right-arm line. Left-handers can't be elite? "Steve Young is on line one, Kurt."

Walker, of course, is now in Kansas City. Rich said Walker has given Patrick Mahomes a mulligan while Mahomes works back from his knee injury. Warner thinks the Chiefs may be the best team in football, with one question: the wide receivers. "I didn't see Andy Reid committing to the run like they have through the first six weeks," he admitted. Now Worthy and company only need to make four or five plays a game instead of Mahomes throwing 35 or 40 times. "If they had to throw the football, I don't believe they're 6-0 right now."

Rich pointed out the next opponent is Seattle, which is both equipped and highly motivated to stop Walker. Warner agreed it cuts two ways: "Not only did he leave you and he's having this kind of year in Kansas City, but you've got nobody that's been able to replace him."

Then came Caleb Williams. Rich joked about how rusty the Bears quarterback looked after missing three weeks, before conceding he was better than ever. Warner said it was the best game he's seen Williams play, and pushed back on the idea that throwing check-downs is a knock. There is a difference, he said, between playing fast and skipping open shots, and "going through your progressions, playing the game and throwing it to the right guy if the right guy is a check-down."

"I thought this was the most poised and calm that I've seen Caleb Williams in the pocket in his career," Warner said. Williams didn't force things with his legs, didn't get frantic, and took the shots down the field when they were there. Warner cited 30 of 35 or 36 with a start of 10 or 11 straight completions. "He played the game mentally the right way, and that's what was so impressive to me." Rich said that makes the Bears dangerous, if the defense plays the way it did through three quarters in Atlanta.

Rich's last stop was Dallas. What happened to Gotti? Warner said the Cowboys aren't dominating up front or running the ball, so everything falls on the passing game. "I think going out and calling yourself Gotti puts a lot of pressure on your offense," he said, adding, "I don't think Dak's playing really good football."

He compared Dallas to Peyton Manning's offenses, which ran the same concepts over and over. The Cowboys run solid basic stuff without many formations or motions, essentially saying "We're better than you." That can get stagnant, Warner said, and when the passing game is struggling, players start to press. Rich, never one to miss a moment, noted Warner should have said "got to make every throw." Warner said he just doesn't like doing that.

Is it fixable in a wide-open division? Warner wasn't sure, starting with a defense that let receivers run "wide open all over the place." Fixable, to him, means winning the line of scrimmage again. "This team is losing in the trenches on both sides of the ball right now," he said.

Finally, should the Giants start J.J. McCarthy? "Yeah. I don't think there's anywhere to go," Warner said. He called himself a big Jameis Winston fan, but said Winston has struggled since Jaxson Dart went down and isn't giving the competitive plays that always made him special. McCarthy's numbers were great, Warner said, and while he didn't think McCarthy played great necessarily, "he gave you a spark, and he brought you back. And you made this trade for him." If McCarthy is up to speed on the full playbook, Warner said, you make the move and see what you have in the young guy.