Pro Football Hall of Famer Kurt Warner

27:06So I didn't even have any offensive linemen at the time. But I do not remember being able to go shopping at Ivy and getting a discount on everything I purchased there. So it's a good question. I don't remember taking advantage of it much if I did. I was only making$5.50 an hour, so I wasn't buying a whole lot of anything anyways. Do you think anyone has the career that you had as in going into it? Like, I don't feel like rookies these days get signed by a team and then go to NFL Europe to play for the Admirals. I don't know if the Admirals are still a team or anything like that. But, dude, was that common?

27:43Like, did that happen often in your era? And does it happen at all now? You know, I mean, obviously going, you know, from grocery store or arena football to the NFL was really, really rare. You know, at the time they did have NFL Europe, which was where Amsterdam, the Amsterdam Admirals were. So it was kind of a feeder league by the NFL. And there were a number of guys, you know, Jake the moment went to a Super Bowl. I believe Rich Gannon might have played over there, Brad Johnson. And so guys that quarterbacks that played over there, kind of a developmental league, came back to the NFL and had great success in the NFL.

28:17And the unfortunate thing is they got rid of NFL Europe. You know, now they have the UFL where we've seen, you know, a couple of quarterbacks. Adrian Martinez, who actually played with my son in college, is with the Jets now and trying to, you know, made the team or the practice squad last year, but came from the UFL. So there is a UFL league, but there needs to be a developmental league for guys like myself that maybe take an untraditional path and need to show people, need to play a little bit more football on the big field. So I'm hoping that the UFL continues to have success. At some point, the NFL maybe buys into that because there are a number of positions, specifically the quarterback position, that can use that development.

29:00And, you know, there was a long period of time, you know, after I came along where there really hasn't been anything for these quarterbacks to be able to kind of showcase their skills, to grow, to get experience and then, you know, make a run like I did in the NFL. Do you think you would have had a different path if you were in today's college where there's NIL and transfer portals? Would your path been completely different if that would have happened back in your day? You know, it's hard to say. I mean, I think there's one side of it to say, well, I did sit on the bench for four years in college.

29:34You know, with the transfer portal, I could have transferred somewhere and maybe played. But I also look at it and go, well, who would have known about me anyways? Like, where would I have been going? And, you know, what program would have wanted this guy that couldn't get on the field at Northern Iowa to play, you know, at least at that level or at a higher level to be able to get noticed? So I don't really know. I don't know what it would have looked like for me. There were times where I thought about stepping away from where I was and even just going to a smaller school just because I wanted to play football and sitting on the bench for four years like, man, this may be it for me.

30:12I want to just play again. I want to be on the field and have some fun. I ultimately chose not to, and obviously it didn't play out like I wanted it to, but obviously it turned into an opportunity. but I would have probably guessed if there was the portal and it was as easy to transfer you then as it is now that I probably would have gone that route and I don't know what it would have meant I don't know if it would have been a benefit or a negative for me but I probably would have done that and at least gone somewhere to play and and see what would turn out you know being on the football field as opposed to being on the bench with with QB confidential you're analyzing all quarterbacks all the time, what are some of the biggest rookie mistakes that rookies are making?

30:57Um, you know, for me, I think the biggest thing is when you look at kind of the way the quarterback position is being developed, you know, I coached high school football as well. And so I'm a little bit in the know about what's going on there is that a lot of football has become, you know, what I call pure progression. I have this conversation all the time where, they want players to play quickly. They want their best athletes or best throwers to be on the field as quick as possible. So they try to develop a system that doesn't take quite as much learning, seeing coverages and deciphering what they're seeing and being able to change their reads on the fly.

31:36So they develop these systems that is just kind of like, it's one, two, three, four, five, no matter what you see, no matter what the defense does. So we can just kind of plug you in and all you have to learn is, okay, who are you looking at first? Who are you looking at second and if they're open throw it to them and you know I think you can get away with that at the high school level and oftentimes at the college level because certain teams are so much better than other teams you know and talent level is different but it's one thing that I see when guys get to the NFL is you know I actually just tweeted it yesterday I was watching some of the preseason tape and it's amazing to me how many of these quarterbacks and especially young quarterbacks will just drop back and they'll just like look at one guy and they're looking to see if they can just find a little bit of a window and then they throw it really hard uh and try to get it into that guy and I'm thinking to myself well just read that defender that defender is squeezing it to make it a hard throw look at that guy out there who's wide open but they're not learning and developing how to read and go through progressions and what they need to see and processing information fast and so I think that's what leads to a lot of these mistakes because they're trying to play the game too fast, throwing the ball too hard, they're trying to fit things into tight windows, instead of truly learning how to, from my opinion, play the position, read defenders, get that processing down so they can make the game easier on themselves, and not have to be perfect from a physical standpoint because they're winning the game from a mental standpoint.

33:06Do a lot of rookies contact you with all of your accolades, everything you've done in the NFL uh you know your first season going into I mean how you've come up I mean you're an NFL MVP one of the greatest quarterbacks you're a hall of famer I imagine rookies are calling you day in and day out be like hey man can you watch my tape can you give me some advice is there anything I could do on this or that because I know as a WWE superstar when I first got into WWE I would go up to the Undertaker I would go up to John Cena who I believe are the goats and I would ask them I go, hey, man, can you watch my match?

33:42Can you give me any advice? Can you teach me some things? Are rookies doing that for you? That's part of the reason why you're as good as you are. And, you know, you're amazed at, yeah, I'm amazed at the lack of calls and connection that I do have is that, you know, I always try to make myself available. When I go to the combine, I try to get the numbers of as many guys as possible and connect with them. uh there's a number of guys you know because i have their numbers that i'll i take notes um you know all year long about different tape and stuff and i'll send that to certain guys but you'd be amazed at the lack of uh you know back and forth that you have or the lack of reaching out you know i've had a few over the years um that have done it but very very few and you know i i don't know the answer why you know maybe they have other mentors maybe um you know whatever uh but yeah i'm kind of dumbfounded by it that, you know, I just, cause I try to make myself available.

34:39I'm not one of those guys that, um, you know, if they text me, I don't get back to them. I'm always trying because I love teaching the sport. I love being able to share my expertise. I love to challenge guys and what they're thinking and what they're doing. And it goes for coaches too. I reach out to a lot of coaches and say, you know, you want a quarterback perspective, you reach out to me because I do believe I have some knowledge and understanding of, uh, you know, how things work and how quarterbacks see things and what can help the little things that can help. And so, yeah, very few reach out.

35:11And, you know, I don't know the answer. Maybe it's me. And like I said, maybe they've got other guys that they connect to, and so they don't need a resource like me. But I'm always trying to make myself available because I love that part of it. I know I'm probably never going to get into full-time coaching. Why not? I do just time, family, kids, grandkids. Like, yeah, I often say that I'm too blessed to coach because of the great things that I've got going, whether it's NFL Network or the Westwood One stuff on the radio or the things I'm doing on TV, whether it's YouTube or NFL, whatever. Like, I got a lot of stuff going and I love it.

35:45And it gives me great freedom to be able to go watch my son play college football or to go see my grandkids or whatever that is. So I just I love what I'm doing and it allows me a certain freedom that that full time coaching wouldn't. So, you know, I've created my website, which you see kind of behind me, QB Confidential.com to do that. I'll coach guys individually. I do a lot of the tape breakdowns and stuff and send them to guys. And that's kind of my niche to coach. And I would love to do kind of one-on-one mentoring or consulting for whomever. for whomever. But that's kind of my niche for coaching just because I don't want to do the full-time thing and put in the 60 hours a week when I've got other things going on.

36:25But I would love to have my hand in it, you know, more with guys or with coaches or with the team or whatever that looks like. And so I do a little of that. A lot of it is, you know, usually at the younger ages, I'll have different, you know, QB coaches that'll bring, you know, their high school guys or maybe some college guys out to the house a few times a year. And so I relish those opportunities and I love those opportunities, but I would like to connect more with some NFL guys, you know, along the way. And who knows, you know, every year, new group of young guys, as they start to play, maybe it will develop into some relationships where I get to do that more on a full-time basis with those guys.

37:00That amazes me that you said the lack of rookies calling you because me, even to this day, even right now, I'm always asking people, would you think, is there anything I can do? I'll look on Twitter and granted, these are just fans or whatever. And I just want to see what they're talking about, but then to have an expert like you to sit there and go, Hey, here's, here's, here's video of like what you're doing. And here's things that you can work on to do it. And they're not taking that opportunity to call you is just mind blowing to me. Yeah. I think the other thing too, is just, just sometimes getting a different perspective, right?

37:38Because all of us have been coached a certain way, or maybe we're, you know, in a place that, that they coach it a certain way. And not that it's necessarily wrong, but sometimes we speak a little bit of a different language. And so what a coach may be telling us may not fully connect with us. And so let me hear it from somebody else that's done it. Maybe they have a different perspective. They look at it a little differently, or they can challenge the way that I've been doing it or the way that I've been thinking about it and can help me to think about something a different way. And that's what I always appreciated was, was guys that could give me a different perspective and, and they would challenge what I already believe and make me go back and go, okay, they said this, this is what I've always thought.

38:16And I always believe it does one of two things. Like when somebody challenges me and I go back and then challenge those thoughts is a, it either convicts me more in what I already believed because it was like, okay, I see what they're saying, but I still think this is better or B, it gives me something that I hadn't thought about and go, wow, I never really considered that. Let me try that. Let me apply that and see if that is better because it makes a lot of sense to me. And so that's why I always think that's great. And so that's why I always try to make myself available, like I said, to coaches and to players because sometimes you go down a path as a coach, like, hey, I've always done it this way and this way, and I've had some success doing it this way.

38:55And you can't ever step out of that box and go, well, how did they think about it? Because they're really good. But two, you know, maybe they're thinking about a different way that I could apply that onto what I already have. And now we just start stacking and become better. And so that's what I always appreciated was those guys that had different perspectives to share with me. So it wasn't just giving me the same thing that I'd been told a million times, but telling me to look at it maybe a little bit differently and something that really spoke my language. I wonder if it's just too many cooks in the kitchen, right?

39:26I imagine they have a lot of stuff going on right now, right? And everyone's throwing different things at them. And just to add another one would be like maybe too much for them. But I just can't see if you're out here saying, I want to help whoever wants the help. If I'm Cam Ward or Shadur or any Tyler or Jackson, I'd be like, oh my God, I got to find this guy's number. Someone's got to have it in the office. Someone's got to give me this guy's number so I can literally get some more feedback to be the best I could possibly be out there for my team. It's a billion-dollar team. There's a billion-dollar franchise on my back.

40:04I need to get my best foot possible. Do you see any rookies right now out there that you're like, a lot of promise, a lot of promise. I like this guy. I mean, I think, you know, you could look at it. Go back to your point real quick. Is that I think you make a good point because when I was growing up, I never had a personal quarterback coach. Like I never had anybody that I went and worked with, you know, day in and day out or going through the draft process or what I get was always on my own kind of learning and then taking things for different coaches where a lot of these guys do now. They have this team around them or they've got this, you know, QB guru that they go to and maybe has been coaching them for years.

40:44And so, you know, maybe that is the guy that they go to to mentor and they don't need, as you said, a lot of cooks in the kitchen. So that is something that I think is different with the landscape. Dave, you know, going to your question about, you know, young quarterbacks, not ready to say about the rookies yet, but I tell you what, the class from last year was really fun to watch the ones that played last year. I'm really excited to see them in year two, you know, Jaden Daniels, Drake Mayer was really impressed with the way that he played excited to see him in year two, Michael Penix. We just got a touch of what he did, but I was a big fan coming out of college and thought he showed some, some really good things.

41:20Bo Nix had a really good year and got better and better and better. You know, J.J. McCarthy, I think we're all excited to see that, hey, Sam Darnold was awesome. But, you know, they felt so strongly about J.J. that they're like, hey, you know, let's push him, you know, to Seattle and let's go with the guy that we drafted. And so I'm really excited to see that draft class. I mean, they were really, really good last year. I want to see if they can stack something on top of it and show that improvement this year because, you know, very seldom do you see that many guys that look like they hit in one quarterback class but uh it sure looked like uh we had a number of guys that really have the potential like you know didn't even mention Caleb um which I think I'm really excited to see him in this new offense with what Ben Johnson does and see if you know we can kind of throw a little bit of that that rookie year out um you know and see where he can grow this year and if he can kind of step into that number one pick role too but But I'm really excited about all those guys.

42:19I think they all showed some moments last year that you could build off of them. And it has to have their fan base and their organizations really excited. Why is there a sophomore slump? Why does that seem to always kind of happen every year? You kind of see it. Like I saw it with CJ Stroud and I went, oh, like first year it was like, oh, this guy's got the break. And then even with Baker, like first year he's out, boom. And then second year I'm like, wait, what's going on? Why does that happen? Yeah, I think usually two things, in my opinion. The first thing is we always say that nobody really has a book on you until you play a full season.

42:56And by that I mean to look at your tendencies and what you like to do and where you're really good and what kind of things gave you trouble on a season. Do you get a season under your belt and people can start building this and start looking at the analytics and where did you struggle? And the struggle against pressure was really good against pressure You know, those kinds of things. And so I think that's the first thing is the more you play, the more people start to understand who you are and what you do, and they try to take advantage of it. You know, I think the second thing, you know, I remember back to that first year in 99, you know, I don't want to say the game was easy, but it felt like, you know, we had kind of a new offense that year.

43:36I was new to the scene, but it felt like that first year that I was thrown into my first read a lot. you know like nobody really knew what we were offensively and so you know i was getting kind of oh drop back oh my my first guy's open i just got to play pitch and catch with them and then you get into the second and third year and even though the stats might not have been as good i would always think oh man i'm playing better football because teams are taking away my number one and i'm working quickly to number three and i'm i'm able to process information i'm getting through all this stuff and that's what they do is they start to go okay this is kind of how their offense is built.

44:11Let's take that away and let's force the quarterback to get beyond number one, to have to see things, to disguise things a little bit more. And so now, you know, these quarterbacks in year two, even though they may be a little better quarterback, it's harder to play the position because teams know who you are. They're trying to take what you do away. Well, trying to take what your offense does away, you know, and now you've got to process, you've got to see things, you've got to get through your reads faster. And if you can't do that if you're not quite ready to do that boom there's where your sophomore slump comes in there's where you fall back a little bit and you've got to grow as a quarterback to become better at processing that information getting through things quickly knowing what you need to see and then getting the ball out of your hands wow amazing thank you so much for being here on the rich as a show that's a that's a lot of stuff i was like wow you just updated me on everything quarterback.

45:04I'm like, I'm ready to go. And if there's any rookies out there that have not called Kurt Warner, find his number, call him. This guy will give you all that information and definitely check out Kurt Warner on YouTube's first ever live football game. You're an analyst. I can't wait to see you out there. And thank you so much for being here. We really appreciate you. And after that, we are going to break.

45:32Rich Eisen here. Running a small business means every hire matters. A bad hire costs time and money, but the right one helps your business grow. The challenge? Finding that person without sorting through resumes. That's where LinkedIn Hiring Pro comes in. It screens candidates so you can focus on conversations with qualified talent. With Hiring Pro, you can hire with confidence and build the team you need. Join the 2.7 million small businesses using LinkedIn to hire. Get started by posting your job for free at linkedin.com slash eisen. Terms and conditions apply. O 'Reilly Auto Parts gets you back to savings.

46:05Buy five quarts of Syntec full synthetic motor oil and get a free micro guard select oil filter. Limits apply. Save 20 % on a micro guard or micro guard select engine air filter when purchased with this Syntec special. How are you, George? I'm great. What do you have there? I sit in your green room and I was back to for like longer than five minutes. And so I started exploring and I found a closet and I found a pillow with your face on it. I'm going to probably take this home with you. So you know that. Please do. Get it out of here. This is going to be. Now, how do you explain that to your wife?

46:38Oh, what do you mean? She's going to say it looks beautiful. So you're right on my couch. Which couch? She's going to be, hey, sweetie, will you please put Rich away? And I will say no. No, he's here with me tonight while we watch a movie. Did Brock Purdy get jacked up? Brock? Yeah. Dude, he's always jacked up. He didn't look it. No, you just, you didn't see it because you're like, oh, look at this young, nice, nice guy. With his backpack like he's going to home ec. Yeah, that's what you see. But then, like, now that he's, you know, he's into year, was he, he's into year three now. Yeah. You know, he's played a lot of big football games, played at a really high level, run up the MVP.

47:15See, now you're noticing, like, the physical attributes. There it is. Wow, there it is. Look at those quads. Ooh. Damn. Yeah, I know. Thank you. Shoot. what the hell give me a good story about him that uh where he's where where maybe the first time you're like all right i see this i got it i understand it brock's first day i hung an aisle football shirt in his locker which was phenomenal and he instantly takes out because he's like two lockers down from he goes you put this in here just get this get this out of my locker and i'm just like i'm gonna like you i absolutely know that already just like tosses it on the ground i was like respect i love that that's what he said to you get this out of my locker i was like phenomenal absolutely love it that was the first george and i was like hey brock welcome to the niners like he gets to his locker and i was like you put this in her to get the out of my locker what exactly did you put in there an iowa hawkeye football shirt because he went to iowa state yeah it's phenomenal that was when i first was like all right brock's gonna be a solid dude like i'm really excited for that um then you go from um the mexico city game where we played in it was was at was at 2022 and he had like three snaps in the first snap he turned the wrong way on a handoff which was phenomenal and i was like oh that's kind of funny that happens to guys sometimes and then two weeks later he's coming in against the miami dolphins after our second quarterback went down and um delivering third down and longs to me juice um iuke debo and just stepping up in the huddle stepping up in the pocket getting hit and cover zero looks and just delivering the football and you're just kind of like oh wow like this he can play like you you're not just going to step into a football game and just deliver like that and then it's like okay well is he going to do it again and then this first start of his career i'm pretty sure was against the tampa bay buccaneers and tom ready in san francisco yeah that's pretty cool like hey what a storyline no brady's coming back to the bay i'm pretty sure last time that he was in the bay they beat the niners like 30 something to nothing something like that so it's like oh you know this is you know gonna be a big game and brock comes out there and just plays lights out um and then like it just kept going kept stacking and we didn't lose the game and it's just like all right until like the nfc championship game he gets hurt we're like wow okay well then the next question is hey what's gonna happen to brock you know he's recovered from a ucl injury like how's he gonna respond to that doesn't throw hardly throws a little bit you know throughout the summer and stuff like that a little he has a limit during training camp and he comes out first game season against the pittsburgh Steelers and there's a couple of touchdowns so it's for a bunch of yards and you're like he's gonna be just fine and really like you just notice it every single day like he's a consistent kid he's I mean that really kid he's consistent and his job every single day shows up he just has like this intensity to him that like I don't make people see very often unless you're in the building with them like he just wants to be really good are we up five seconds three

50:06and we're back it's the rich eisen show i am filling in for rich eisen i am the miz and we just had kurt warner and guys i am still dumbfounded by the fact that he said the lack of rookies or first-year quarterbacks not calling a guy like Kurt Warner. What is your take on that? It's kind of crazy, right? Yeah, it seems crazy. In the sense that these guys do have coaches and they do have QB coaches and maybe they're worried about the optics of them reaching out someone outside of the team. If I'm a coach, I'm like, great, fantastic, wonderful. Please get more information. try to do it and then we'll see what they say maybe i like that maybe i don't you know it's but it gives me an option and it shows you that you're you're really going for it like you really want to be great i agree yeah i guess in a way like it shows you're serious about you know the position and the job and the opportunity you have like who wouldn't want kurt warner as a mentor like you said you used to bug cena and undertaker and all these guys you know in our business we're bugging rich where al michaels comes in here we pepper him with questions berman whatever your industry is it's kind of you're trying to learn and grab knowledge for anywhere you can yeah yeah gotta just have to so still on roku still on so still on roku i i i'm learning these these uh 10 9 8 7 6s uh for the radio and then on roku so i'm like oh okay finish a thought but then i'm like well we still have like five seconds dead air is not good ever in my opinion so i was just doing the uh yep uh-huh great because i don't want to say anything matter of fact of and then literally oh man here we go sorry radio folks yeah sorry radio folks but i mean you know the miz sitting in for rich we'll be right back you know what i mean i get that i get the thing i get what we're doing but you guys told me like on radio you don't do that like you just you kind of let it pause and then you go to TV.

52:11But it's so awkward. I know. I was doing the ah-hahs. I was ah-hawing. I was like, yeah, ah-haw. I think tomorrow you'll be a little smoother. I did the ah-haw for sure. I can't say we're going to be right back because we're not going to be right back. We're on Roku. We're sitting here right here on television show talking about it. We're not on radio. There's a lot of things going on here that I am just trying to figure out in place. Let's go to a call. Let's talk to Solly from Vegas. Can we? Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure. Solly, what up, man? Fellas! Brockman! TJ! What up, man? Jay Felly! What?

52:47Good boy! What up, Sully? What's up, brother? That's all I get? Miz is bringing the heat. I bring the juice. What do you mean? We can't keep up with this guy's energy. He's in a word of suit. This is it? You don't have a question? You're leaving me dead air. Stop leaving me dead air. You can't have dead air on a show. Come on, Sully. Let's go. It's Vegas. It's 115 degrees right now. Let's go. Last summer here in Vegas backstage at Theo's show. And I just wanted to say thank you very much for that easy, chill conversation with you and your wife. It was a cool little experience for me. Was this backstage where Crosby was there, too?

53:28Yep. Dude, I saw him, by the way. So we were at Theo Vaughn's comedy show. For anyone that knows, I was on The Real World. He was on Road Rules. I've known him for a very long time. I actually saw his first stand-up that he ever did. And now to see where he's progressed to, it's absolutely incredible. And we get backstage, and Max Crosby's there. And I'm like, oh, man, he's bigger than I thought he would be. Like, he's a big human being. And when you see him, you go, oh, wow. Like, what was your first thoughts? I've known Max for a little bit. And the first time I met him, I was like, whoa. Of course you do.

54:01You're in Vegas, Sully. I've known him for so long. Look at me. Well, Max and I have a mutual common friend, and anytime I get to see Max, it's amazing when you look at those guys on TV and you're like, oh, he's just an average-sized human. And then you see him standing next to somebody like myself. I'm 6 '2". Hey, silly, that's great, but we've got a break. We've got to go to the third hour. We'll see you on the third. We'll see you on the third. Look at that!

54:33Saying how you feel out loud is terrifying. But that's what Hinge's new free audiobook, No Ordinary Love, is all about. It's a collection of real love stories about five couples that met on Hinge. The stories are written and read by Tembi Dinton Hurst, Nicola Dinan, Curtis Garner, Raven Smith, and Rufi Thorpe. I, Hunter Harris, wrote and read the foreword. The audiobook's out now. Give it a listen.