The NFL is full of incredible QB’s from past to the present. Many have proven their worthiness to be a bust in Canton, Ohio, to make their mark in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Others have also made their mark, yet become criminally under-appreciated by many football fans despite clearly boasting legendary careers.
One of those QB’s is Kurt Warner.
What’s amazing about Kurt Warner is that there are a lot of people who don’t understand how good he was in the NFL. In his 12-year career, he became one of the league’s purest and most deadly accurate passers ever. Few QB’s were as consistent with completions as Kurt Warner was.
But we almost never saw him in action.
Undrafted in the 1994 NFL Draft, he supported himself by stocking boxes at a grocery store. Eventually, he got a job as an Arena Football QB, signing with the Iowa Barnstormers, and becoming the league’s biggest star, taking his team to 2 Arena Bowls. After missing a Chicago Bears tryout due to a spider bite on a honeymoon, Warner finally got his wish; the St. Louis Rams signed him to the team.
Although barely getting any playing time his rookie season in 1998, in 1999 the stage was set for Warner after Rams starting quarterback Trent Green tore his ACL in the preseason. Head Coach Dick Vermeil famously said that the Rams would “rally around Kurt Warner and we’ll play good football” (even though he had never seen Warner in action before with the starting roster).
Since then, Warner has established himself as one of the best QB’s ever in my opinion, and a severely underrated one at that.
When you look at Warner’s stats, you find it hard to believe that he’s not talked about as much as other legendary QB’s. In his first full year (1999), he threw for 4,353 yards, 41 touchdowns, and won the NFL MVP, as well as the Super Bowl (and Super Bowl MVP), making good on the promise given by coach Vermeil’s words before the regular season started. In addition, he became the first QB in NFL history to throw for at least three touchdowns in each of his first three games as a starter. All of this came with a passer rating of 109.2 on the year.
But Warner was no one-hit wonder, proving this over the next two years, where he continued to lead The Greatest Show On Turf to record breaking offensive numbers and another Super Bowl appearance in 2001. Warner again won the NFL MVP that same year, where he amassed 4,830 yards and 36 touchdowns, as well as finishing with a passer rating of 101.4 and a career high completion percentage of 68.7%.
At an older age, Kurt Warner revived his pro career after disappointing seasons from 2002-2004, when in 2005 he signed with the Arizona Cardinals. Although it took him a while to get back into form, by 2007 he was again playing at an elite level, and in 2008 had one of his greatest seasons ever, throwing for 4,583 yards and 30 touchdowns, while also leading Arizona to its first Super Bowl appearance (in a closely contested loss against the Pittsburgh Steelers), making him one of the few NFL QB’s to led two different teams to Super Bowls.
Sadly, there are people who still dismiss Kurt Warner, claiming he really only had three good seasons (the ones where he led his teams to Super Bowl appearances).
These claims are entirely false. Warner had multiple injuries in 2000, 2002, 2003, 2005, and a career ending injury in the 2009 post-season against the New Orleans Saints. Considering all the injuries he had, it’s amazing the numbers he put up in his 12 seasons in professional football, and it would be interesting to see what he could have done healthy.
Kurt Warner holds many individual records, such as; being the only QB to throw for 400+ yards in a Super Bowl (1999), fastest QB to reach 10,000 yards and 30,000 yards (the latter is tied with Dan Marino), the only QB to throw for over 14,000 yards with two different teams (St. Louis Rams, Arizona Cardinals), the only QB to throw 40 TD’s and win a Super Bowl in the same season, and the highest average amount of passing yards on Monday Nighty Football (329.4).
But what really makes Warner one of the all time greats is the accuracy he had. Few quarterbacks were more accurate and precise than he was. He had six seasons of a completion percentage of at least 65% (the total in his career being 65.5%, 4th best among all NFL QB’s), a total passer rating of 93.7, and a TD-INT ratio of 208-128. He also holds the record for highest completion percentage in a single game (92.3% against the Jacksonville Jaguars in 2009), and was a very efficient quarterback in the postseason, finishing with a record of 9-4, as well as throwing for 3,952 yards, 31 touchdowns, and amassing a passer rating of at least 100.00 in three of his five postseason appearances (two of these 100.00+ passer ratings came with the Cardinals).
I would go so far as to compare Kurt Warner to Ken Griffey Jr. Much like Griffey, Warner was a very talented athlete plagued with numerous injuries throughout his career that prevented him from reaching his potential. Unlike Griffey, however, Warner has gone under the radar as one of the game’s greatest quarterbacks, which is a shame, considering he put up 32,444 passing yards and 208 TD’s with so many injuries. Had he stayed healthy and consistent like his passing, we would be seeing Kurt show up in top ten lists of greatest quarterback around NFL media.
With one Super Bowl ring, a Super Bowl MVP, three Super Bowl appearances, and two NFL MVP’s, Kurt Warner cemented himself as one of the game’s elites, becoming a household name for the Rams and the Cardinals. There is no reason why he should be denied from being considered one of the NFL’s best QB’s. As I’ve said several times in this column, there were few quarterbacks with the accuracy and precision he had.
And since he’s eligible for Canton in 2015, I would encourage all of the voters to make him a first ballot Hall of Fame inductee. After all, he’s got some impressive stats for a guy who used to make a living working at a grocery store.
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