The Perfect Fit

[stewdog1]

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/sports/stories.nsf/rams/story/80ED034F32D3BFFA862570500018600A?OpenDocument

The perfect fit

By Lori Shontz​

Of the Post-Dispatch​

07/31/2005

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Kurt Warner looks to pass against the Baltimore Ravens during a preseason game last year at Giants Stadium.
(Jesse D. Garrabrant/Getty Images)

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This time, Kurt Warner had the luxury of time. He wasn't in a big hurry as he was in June 2004, when the Rams released him and he needed to quickly find a team - any team - that could use a quarterback.

Last season's stint with the New York Giants ended, essentially, when first-round draft pick Eli Manning took over the starting job in the season's 10th game. That gave Warner plenty of time to think ... and the entire offseason to find the perfect situation.

He had a checklist. A chance to start - without, as he put it, "having to cheer for somebody not to do well." An offensive system that played to his strengths. A team looking for a leader. An organization with a bright future. And ideally, a warm-weather city for his wife, Brenda.

In the Arizona Cardinals, Warner said, he has met every single requirement. "Not two out of three, not three out of four," he said by phone from his new home in Phoenix. "Really, everything I was looking for."

No, Warner wasn't specifically searching for a team that has posted one winning record in the past 20 seasons and hasn't been to the playoffs since 1998. But he said the Cardinals, who open training camp today, remind him of another team that he joined when it was poised for success - the Rams.

"St. Louis was built more around chemistry - everyone being on the same page, everyone believing in everyone, everyone not caring who got the credit, not worrying about who was going to be a superstar," Warner said. "I got that feel for this organization, where they were going, the talent level they had."

The Cardinals sound equally pleased to have Warner. They say they aren't concerned that in his past 16 starts, Warner has posted a 5-11 record. Or that in the past three seasons, he has thrown 10 touchdown passes and 16 interceptions. Or that in nine games with the Giants, he was sacked 39 times. Or that when the season starts, he will be 34 years old.

Arizona coach Dennis Green watched, literally, every throw that Warner made with the Giants. (He said he didn't bother watching any film of Warner in a Rams uniform: "He whipped us every time.") The exercise put Green's mind at ease.

"When he has a chance to do his job ..." Green said, digressing briefly into his philosophy that everyone has to carry his own water, that no one can win by himself. "When Kurt had a chance to make good throws, he made good throws. When his receivers ran the right routes. If the protection's not there, there's nobody that can do their job."

Warner said the system is similar to the type of offense he ran so successfully with the Rams. He also thinks the Cardinals, who improved greatly on defense last season, their first under Green, are in need of leadership on offense, something he can provide.

That's what Green expects from his new quarterback, as well - and it's what younger players have noticed.

Take wide receiver Anquan Boldin, who was in high school and college when Warner and the Rams were the talk of the NFL. "Everyone was wanting to be part of an offense like that," Boldin said. "Every Sunday, you'd turn on the TV just to watch the Rams rack up points and yards. They made it look easy."

So when Warner became one of nine free agents to sign with the Cardinals, Boldin took that as a good sign. Players were viewing Arizona as a legitimate opportunity, not just a stop along the way. And he was especially thrilled at the chance to play with Warner.

"Anytime you have a guy who played in two Super Bowls, who won the MVP, I don't think he wants to go somewhere just to go somewhere," Boldin said. "He has the fire in him. He wants to win. I don't think he would have come to Arizona if he didn't think he had a chance to win."

Warner signed a one-year, $4 million deal with the Cardinals in March. He said the free-agent process was much easier than it was after the Rams released him; most teams had settled on their quarterbacks by then, so he wasn't trying to look long-term.

"Last year was more about getting on the football field and trying to have success as quickly as possible to open up a door in the future, where hopefully I would become the starter and finish out my career somewhere," he said. "It was really unlikely it was going to be New York."

Thanks to mini-camp and a variety of other workouts, Warner enters training camp already comfortable with the Cardinals' offense. He said he can react without having to think through every little thing, a level he never reached with the Giants.

"It was more managing it - doing what they ask you to do, playing within myself, not making mistakes, all things I felt I could do as well as I could do," Warner said. "Not only did I not have a full comfort level in the offense, but it didn't call upon me to do some of the things I am capable of doing. That makes it frustrating."

So between that and Manning, Warner knew that he wouldn't be the starter for long. The hook came, however, quicker than he expected; the Giants were 5-2 and seemed to be headed for the playoffs before losing to Chicago by a touchdown and Arizona by a field goal in November, when Manning took over.

Still, Warner accepted his role, saying it wasn't that difficult of a transition to stand on the sidelines while a younger quarterback played - "I'd been in that situation in St. Louis."

The difficulties came from the larger implications. "When politics start to play into something, it's not just black and white, and it gets a little more difficult to deal with," he said. "I don't know if there's a great way or a better way to handle it. I understand it's a prevalent part of the NFL, but I guess I was naive and didn't want to believe that could play into it, even though I'd heard about it, seen great players pushed out of an organization to make room for somebody else. You never want to believe it could happen to you. I'm a little more realistic what the NFL's all about."

In a similar vein, Warner wasn't surprised when the NFL announced the schedule, which has the Cardinals opening against the Giants and facing the Rams in Phoenix in Week 2. Neither was his coach.

"I call that the NFL's sense of humor," Green said. "The one thing that surprised me is that we didn't have to go to St. Louis first." That game comes on Nov. 20, not that the specific teams or venues on the schedule mean anything to Warner.

"I'm not going to get all hung up with it," he said. "It's not a vendetta. I'm so excited to be part of the Cardinals organization, in a position to help turn around the franchise. It's not about showing St. Louis that I can still play."
​

 

[40yearfan]

It's not about showing St. Louis that I can still play."

"But if that does happen, so be it."

 

[az1965]

I hope the performance on the field is as encouraging and positive as these articles have been lately...

 

[Chaz]