NFL Network’s Kurt Warner’s Advice for Ravens 3rd-Stringer Joe Fagnano

Joe Fagnano has been thrust into a major role for a Baltimore team with Super Bowl aspirations, and it looks like the job is his for the time being, if not the rest of the year. Rich asked NFL Network's Kurt Warner what advice he would give him. The Ravens also just brought in Kedon Slovis, "Mr. Desert Mountain High School," as Rich put it, a name Warner knows well from Arizona.

Warner's advice was simple: don't try to be the hero.

"You've got some playmakers around you. You got a guy in the backfield that can play. You got some guys on the edges that can play," Warner said. "Allow them to make plays for you."

He said that was a key in his own early process, and he acknowledged the weight Fagnano is carrying. "I get it, Lamar Jackson and who Lamar Jackson is and how he's hurt, and you got to take over and try to keep the dreams alive of all these guys," Warner said. But he warned against trying to do too much before the confidence comes, so the coaches "can build the system around who you are as opposed to who Lamar Jackson was."

"It's okay to throw a check down and let a guy make a play for you," he said. "Throw it underneath instead of having to push the ball down the field and make the big throw every time."

Rich closed with his usual final question: who played the best last week based on the film Warner watched for QB Confidential? Warner said he really liked Caleb, but went with a young player instead. "I'm going to say Cam Ward," he said. "I thought it was the best game that I've seen Cam Ward play as a pro."

Warner said Ward always makes a few throws that wow you, but this time it was the poise in the pocket and the volume of throws that stood out, along with play calling that gave him opportunities. "It's exactly what you want to see from a young guy, a guy that continues to get better and shows glimpses of growth," Warner said, noting Ward pushed Cincinnati to the limit.

That set up the board Rich had made. On one side, Joe Burrow went throw for throw with Ward, accounting for six touchdowns, five in the air and one on the ground. On the other side, a winning quarterback: Baker Mayfield, with no passing yards and no completions.

"I'll take the stat line on the left if I can and get a win," Warner said. But he understood the appeal of the other side. He remembered games during his run when Marshall rushed for 200 yards. "It was nice to be able to just kind of sit back and go, 'Oh gosh, I don't have to do anything.' I got no pressure. Just flip it to 28 and watch him run."

Warner said he was sure that is how Mayfield feels, after seeing four completions over the last two weeks and two wins, while easing back in from a hand injury. The weather made throwing hard anyway. More importantly, Warner said, Mayfield's team is running the ball extremely well, which bodes well for a team that had been pass-first the last couple of years in a division nobody is running away with.

Rich pulled up a reminder that the Greatest Show on Turf did not always have it easy. In the NFC Championship Game against Tampa, an 11-6 game, Warner threw it 43 times and was picked off three times. Warner said that was usually how his teams were built, and he sees the same thing in Cincinnati. When a quarterback has to make every play and every throw to win, he said, "It's a tough place to be for a quarterback, week in and week out."

So every once in a while, a reprieve is welcome, whether it is 200 rushing yards or, in Mayfield's case, running for something like 370 yards. "I'm sure Joe Burrow wouldn't mind a game or two like that," Warner said. "He hasn't had very many in his career."