Kurt Warner weighs in on the Kyler vs. Jacoby debate, where Cardinals go from the bye week

Kurt Warner weighs in on the Kyler vs. Jacoby debate, where Cardinals go from the bye week

We continue here on the Friday edition Bley Marada Mornings coming to you live from the Casino Arizona and Talking Stick Resort Studios. As Vic pointed out in the blast, no Cardinals football next two Sundays. Next two Sundays we will not see the Cardinals until a week from Monday when they take on the Dallas Cowboys. And um so I think it’s time for reflection, a time for recalibration, if you will. Mhm. I’ve seen a lot of people suggest that seven games into the season, hey, the season’s over for the Arizona Cardinals. You could certainly build a case for that. There’s a lot of football to be played. The only problem is that they are in such a hole in their own division. Yeah, there’s uh I don’t know if there’s enough shovels right now for this team if they do recalibrate. Yeah, that is a problem because even if they do find some real answers and and get some things straightened out, this is You’re right. They’ve got three five and two football teams in front of them. That’s not ideal. And and three five-2 football teams that all look really good in their own way. The Seahawks in just in terms of just how solid they are defensively and offensively. The Rams um and how dominant they can be. And then the 49ers, just how resilient they are. Resilient is the word. I mean, you want to talk about a team that’s just been ravaged again by injuries and continues to win football games. Uh, as promised, we are joined now by Pro Football Hall of Famer, the one, the only Curt Warner. We we’re talking about a five-game losing streak for the Cardinals and where this team is and where do you point the fingers and I think there’s a lot of things that have gone wrong so far, but what do you surmise at the the mindset of this team is with the by-week coming at this time for a team that is just struggling to to find a way to win a football game, Kurt? Yeah, I mean I think that’s the key is is struggling to find a way to win but not, you know, playing bad football and not putting themselves in positions to win week in and week out. And so, um, you know, there’s definitely frustration in the locker room that, hey, you know, guys, we, you know, we could have a completely different record now if we’ve, you know, find a way, you know, offensively to make a couple plays or defensively to get a stop um, in the fourth quarter. Um, you know, so there’s that frustration, but I think there’s also the other side to say, “Guys, we’re close and we can turn this thing around. We just got to figure out this little piece right here.” And and same with, you know, Coach Ganon and the staff going, “All right, our guys are playing hard. Our guys are out there competing and giving ourselves a chance every single week. Now, how do we pin down what it is that we need to do differently, you know, down the stretch or in the fourth quarter to finish these games?” And you know, we talk about it all the time in, you know, locker rooms is is learning how to win, you know, or learning how not to lose in those big moments. And um sometimes it just it takes time with different pieces and and young pieces to realize what exactly that means in the biggest moments. And um having your best players step up and find a way to make a play in those moments. Um you know, guys never you know, letting down and and you know, playing their best football. um when it matters most. Um but yeah, I mean I think there’s probably both sides of the equation. Definitely frustration, you know, where a team could sit back and go, man, we could be anywhere on the spectrum from, you know, seven and0 to uh you know, to to maybe what we are at at two and five. Um but feeling also good that hey guys, you know, this isn’t, you know, all lost. It’s not as if, you know, it’s over and we’re not playing good football. you can’t win some games down the stretch, especially with, you know, a lot of what you see, you know, throughout the NFC is there’s, you know, there’s not necessarily that one dominant team that’s out there or a bunch of really good teams. I think there’s a lot of teams that are kind of middling at this point in the season. And so, you I don’t think they’re a long ways out of it when you’re talking about seven teams that uh that get to the playoffs outside of the fact that obviously that the division is is playing really really well. Kurt, there was a time in Arizona where you were not the starting quarterback, but everyone in the locker room knew you should have been the starting quarterback. Take us to what you think is going on with the team and how does the team get to the bottom of who to play, Jacobe Brassette or Kyler Murray? Well, I mean, I think the bottom line is you’ve made your commitment to to Kyler and and I don’t know if there’s, you know, really a chance to make a move. Um, you know, again, whether it was Kyler in there or Jacobe, they were still playing close games. They were still in situations to win every football game. So, it’s not as if um, you know, this team was you struggling and getting blown out with Kyler and now all of a sudden Jacobe comes in and um, you know, and they’re winning football. Like, it’s not a drastic difference from that standpoint. And so I think your commitment is to Kyler to go, you know, we’re going to give him every opportunity to, you know, see if he’s that guy and that guy that can lead us um, you know, to the next phase of things that Jacobe is is probably not that guy for the Cardinals. As much as I love Jacobe and think he can be a starter in this league, I mean, I they made the commitment to Kyler. Um, and I think this is trying to figure out how to get him to his highest heights or determine, you know, is is this, you know, the highest heights and is he the guy that um that can lead us moving forward or not. So, I I don’t know if there’s really much of a debate here. Um, you know, even though, you know, Jacobe, like I said, has has played good football and the offense looks different because they’re built a little bit differently as quarterbacks and how they play uh these last couple games. But, I mean, to me, this is Kyler’s job. Um, you know, and I guess you can say Kyler’s job to kind of win or lose, you know, just for the the long term, uh, you know, of of, you know, the team saying, “Hey, this is our guy, and we’re going to commit to him for the long term or, um, if they decide to go a different direction at some point.” Uh, but I think this is this is Kyler’s job, and I I don’t think this is one of those things where, you know, you’re looking in the rock locker room and going, “Oh, do we do we start Jakob? Do we start Kyler?” If Kyler’s healthy, I I believe he’s the guy. Kurt Warner, our guest here on Bickley and Marada Mornings. on that subject in in the last two weeks especially with Jacobe Brlet at quarterback. Kurt, we’ve seen an uptick in the production passing wise, 107 yards passing uh more increased. Uh we’ve seen some uh better operation in the red zone. And a lot of what observers see from Jacobe Brassette is his ability to stay in the pocket, to step up in the pocket, uh to subject himself to some some, you know, some hits in the pocket. It has paid off for the offense. I agree with you that they’ve made their commitment to Kyler Murray, but in year seven, uh, Kyler’s ability to get out and run obviously is a strength, but I don’t think this offense works as well if you don’t have a quarterback that’s willing to step up in the pocket and maybe subject himself to some hits. Is that something that a quarterback of any stature can learn in year seven of a career? You know, again, it’s hard to ask me if you can learn something when it’s something that I learned and something that I had to do from the time I was very young. Um, you know, I’ve I’ve, you know, made a lot of statements about how, you know, our NFL now has more athletic quarterbacks than we’ve ever had. You know, guys that can do things that, you know, guys in my era could not do and guys that, you know, are better and better athletes. So, um, they get further and further in their career being the best athlete on the field. And so, their fall back as opposed to a guy like me, my fall back was I had to process. I had to get it out. I had to get through my progressions. I had to stand in the pocket because there was no other options. For these guys, there’s another option. And that option has been a great option for them their entire lives. And so to ask them uh to rewire um and you know figure out the balance between the two and and you know having to do this more or or learn this at the highest level when the stakes are highest and you’re playing a football game I think is a very hard ask. Now I’m I’m not saying that you know someone can’t do it and they can’t get better at it. I just think it’s it’s really hard to get to the highest level and then somebody say okay now you got to change the way you play. you got to rewire yourself to play a different way. Um, and so I I think that’s difficult. Can it be done? Again, I I I don’t have any reference, you know, personally to say it can or it can’t or how well of a processor you can become, you know, at this stage in your life. you know, was I a good processor because I was a good processor or was I a good processor because of the experiences that I had and the fact that I had to learn how to do it and then maybe I played arena football where it was even f like I I don’t know the answer to that. So, is it you know he’s not wired that way? Uh is it that you know it takes a lot of time to learn that and and at this stage is there enough time to learn that? Um, I I I don’t know the answer to that, but I do believe that, you know, even with the the great athletic quarterbacks we have in uh in the NFL world right now, that you have to be able to consistently make plays in the pocket to be elite, to separate yourself, to give your team a chance to win in the biggest moments and on a consistent basis. That is something you have to be able to do uh when it’s called for. And um so I think your you know contrast of the two quarterbacks um is very accurate. You know that Jacobe and again Jacob’s athletic but but he doesn’t play that way. He plays as a pocket quarterback and so he is used to that and he’s used to processing and standing in there and going through progressions and taking hits and delivering. Whereas Kyler is tremendous when his first guy’s there and he can go back and throw it because he’s such a gifted thrower of the football. But then, you know, he he he hasn’t developed that patience or that understanding or that processing to be able to quickly go two, three a and work through it in the pocket as opposed to, okay, that’s not there. Let me go and do the things that I’ve always been great at and create in the out of structure stuff. But I just think at this level to try to live in an out of structure world is really, really hard. You know, to give me three or four out of structure special plays a game. Yeah. I mean, Kyler and and Lamar and and all those guys can do that at an extreme level. It’s just living in that world as opposed to allowing the offense to work for you, I think, is a is a tough formula to consistently win. You can win a game and you know, you can win a couple along the way, but to consistently play at that level, I believe the pieces inside the pocket are things that you have to be able to do. Kurt, great stuff as always. Thanks so much for sticking with us with us through the uh issues. Kurt Warner, Pro Football Hall of Famer, joining us here on Bickley and Marada Mornings. Thanks for watching Bickley and Marada. Click to see the latest Bickley blast and hit the button in the middle to subscribe to Arizona Sports.

NFL Hall of Fame quarterback Kurt Warner joined Bickley & Marotta to talk about where the Arizona Cardinals could improve after the bye week and weighs in on the Kyler Murray vs. Jacoby Brissett starting quarterback debate.

Cardinals question marks go beyond the quarterback conversation: https://arizonasports.com/nfl/arizona-cardinals/question-marks/3599890/

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