Evaluating quarterback play is one of my favorite exercises, and there aren’t many better people to do that with than a Pro Football Hall of Famer.
Kurt Warner joined me on the latest episode of “The Joel Klatt Show” to discuss passing concepts, quarterback play in the NFL today and many more quarterback-related items.
We also discussed our evaluations of the quarterback prospects in the 2025 NFL Draft, particularly Cam Ward and Shedeur Sanders. Last month, I ranked Sanders ahead of Ward in my list of the top five quarterbacks in this year’s draft class. As Warner and I will be a part of NFL Network’s Draft Day coverage next month, I wanted to pick his brain a bit and see how he views Ward and Sanders a month out from the draft.
Here’s a snippet of our conversation.
Klatt: So let me just start with this: You saw all the guys at the combine. As you prepare for the draft, how do you stack up this class in general, and what were your overall feelings of the class after Indy?
Warner: I thought the class was solid across the board. When I think back to Indy, I kind of think that a lot of times it kind of goes up and down, and you got some guys that are pretty good, and then the guys that aren’t very good. I thought this class as a whole we had a number of guys that threw the ball well at the combine. I don’t do a lot of tape study before the combine, maybe do a little bit just to get just a touch of who these guys are. As you know, I don’t watch a lot of college football during the NFL season. I’m an NFL guy, first and foremost. So, I like to go to the combine and get a chance to see the guys, and then I’ll pop on the tape afterward, which I’ve been doing for the last week or so.
Here’s the interesting thing for me: When I watch them on tape, I’m not sure any of these guys are that different from a processing, playing on time, reading the field type of perspective. I feel like the majority of these guys, at least at the top of the class, are very similar guys when I watch them on tape. If you just took the names off the jerseys and you looked, you’d go, “OK. I’ve seen that before. I’ve seen that before. I’ve seen that before.”
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Now Cam (Ward), he’s got a little extra uniqueness to his ability to throw the football. I think that’s what catapults him to the top of the class. I don’t think when you watch him compared to these other guys, like Shedeur, Jaxson [Dart] or Tyler [Shough], that when you watch his decision-making and throwing on time that Cam jumps off the pages, like “Oh gosh, he’s so much better in all these areas.” I just think he’s got a little uniqueness to the way he throws the football. Maybe a little more muscle on the ball. He has the ability to throw off platform. So, I think you put [Ward] at the top because what if that talent transfers to the next level, do we have something special beyond that?
Klatt: When you look at a guy like Cam, what type of offense do you see him thriving in at the next level?
Warner: That’s a great question. What I really believe about all of these guys, even Cam, is that I’m not sure any of these guys is a good enough athlete to survive at the NFL level being an athletic quarterback, if that makes sense. You know that the Josh Allen’s, Lamar Jackson‘s and the Patrick Mahomes‘. I think most of these guys, if they’re going to be really good at the next level, it’s got to come down to processing and getting the ball out of their hands, because I don’t think any of them are great at buying time or being elusive.
That’s the thing that really fascinates me, because we never really know, especially when you watch guys in college. It really frustrates me to watch college tape because when I was watching Cam, what I said was 90% of his throws went to his first guy, or it was a scramble. There wasn’t a whole lot else you would see. You wouldn’t see him go boom, boom and work through these things.
I think that was the case with a number of these guys. Most guys should be able to make those throws, but I didn’t see the processing and working through things. That’s where this is so hard for me. If you struggle to do that at the NFL level, I don’t think any of these guys have that extra to overcome it.
Klatt: What’s your take on Shedeur Sanders?
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Warner: Shedeur may throw the best ball, and what I mean by that is the most catchable and accurate of all these guys. I love that he can pace the ball. Whether it’s because of arm strength or whatever, he never throws it hard. He never has to throw it through you. I love that aspect of things. I like guys that understand how to make different throws. He’s got great touch. I think he throws a really good deep ball.
I watched some of his [tape] from the beginning of the year and I watched the last four games of all these quarterbacks. You mentioned the offensive line. When I break down quarterbacks, I try to eliminate what has happened all year long. I try to look at it play from play … did you do the right thing on this play?
I felt in the last four games, Shedeur was very uneasy in the pocket. Like, very seldom did I see him strong in the pocket, get back and set, and read and deliver the ball. It was like he was always uneasy back there. You talked about the sacks and issues they had upfront. Maybe that led to, “OK, these last four games, I’m just not easy because I’ve gotten hit so much.”
That was the thing that concerned me. He very seldom went through the process. It was kind of like he would go back, see the first guy and then get uneasy, trying to create a throw as opposed to just playing the game. That’s a concern for me. Is that something only because of the situation here and because of the offensive line?
I liked the throws. I liked some of the different throws and concepts he had to play through because that’s exciting for me. When I watched Bo Nix last year, I had the same questions about throwing the ball down the field. But what I loved was that he had the most extensive playbook of anybody in college football last year. … I felt that he did that extremely well and why I felt he could translate to the NFL level.
Shedeur had to do some of that. Shedeur had to run some more pro-style offense there. I like that part of it, and you’ve been exposed to that.
Joel Klatt is FOX Sports’ lead college football game analyst and the host of the podcast “The Joel Klatt Show.” Follow him at @joelklatt and subscribe to the “Joel Klatt Show” on YouTube.
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