Kurt Warner is a future Hall-of-Famer. Troy Smith has Hall-of-Fame stats after two starts in San Francisco.
No one is wondering if Smith will continue his impossible-to-maintain 116.6-passer-rating-pace. But they are wondering if the Niners have found their long-term solution at quarterback. Can Smith be elite? Or will he struggle to be average?
At this point, no one really knows. Not even Warner, a two-time NFL MVP who knows something about the quarterback position.
Warner, in town to serve as FOX’s color analyst for the
Niners-Buccaneers game Sunday, was peppered with Smith-related questions
today. His scouting report: Big arm, excellent legs and plenty of poise
and charisma. He even dismissed concerns about the 6-foot Smith’s
height.
All good, right? But there’s a million-dollar question.
Warner has seen Smith’s ability to make plays on the move. The key
question — the one that will determine Smith’s NFL trajectory in
Warner’s estimation — is what Smith does when forced to stand and
deliver.
“If you’re going to be a franchise quarterback, an every-down
quarterback, you have to win inside the pocket,” Warner said. “You look
at the teams that have won the Super Bowl and are in the Super Bowl
every year. It’s those kind of guys who win it, guys who are making the
throws inside the pocket. That’s the first thing I look at as an NFL
quarterback and as a franchise quarterback, you’ve got to be able to do
that.”
Warner’s right, of course. Drew Brees. Peyton Manning. Tom Brady. And, yes, Kurt Warner.
Your next-door-neighbor might beat those guys in the 40-yard dash. But
few have been better at taking five- to seven-step drops, reading
defenses and making the right throw.
Warner expects defenses to begin devising ways to hem Smith in the
pocket and force him to answer the key questions: Can he make consistent reads and
throws.
“As a quarterback you’ve got to evolve or you’ve got to get better at
your craft,” Warner said. “So, yeah, right now you see him rolling out
and getting some big plays and them doing some different things. And,
yeah, eventually teams are going to say ‘OK, we’re going to try to keep
him in the pocket, we’re going to make him throw, we’re going to change
up some of our coverages, we’re going to see if he can do these kinds of
things.'”
Warner suspects Smith is mentally up to the challenge. He echoed what
Ohio State coach Jim Tressel and Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis reportedly
told Mike Singletary when queried about Smith’s character and
intangibles.
“There’s certain guys that get to this level who you never feel like a
situation is too big for them,” Warner said. “They have a calm about
them. And, to a man, when you talk to someone about Troy Smith and what
I’ve seen from him when I talked to him, he’s got that same thing.”
Still, Warner, for all his knowledge and credentials, will be just like you Sunday.
He’ll watch Troy Smith, looking to see if the two-game wonder has what it takes to star at the NFL’s most demanding position.
“I just don’t know, I haven’t seen him play enough,” Warner said. “I
don’t think anyone’s really seen him play enough to know the answer to
that.”
• Warner on the NFC West, where the four teams have a combined record of
15-21, including 3-15 on the road. Warner led Arizona to the past two
NFC West titles.
“For years they’ve been saying we’re the worst
(division) in football and maybe we were. But I’d like to think the last
couple years, we took a little ownership where we felt we could be
competitive week in and week out,” he said. “That’s what I think is crazy this year
is that I think more than any year you look at the NFC West and think,
‘OK, they’re playing a quality opponent, they’re not even going to be in
the game.’ And I think you look at all those teams and you say the same
thing right now until somebody shows up, whoever that is, and says,
‘OK, we can play with the best teams, even though we don’t win, we can
be competitive.’ Right now, I don’t know who that team is. I really have
no idea who’s going to win this thing.”
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