Kurt Warner: There are no best practices for getting a backup QB ready

0:00Sleep better, train smarter, recover faster and feel healthier. Understand and optimize your sleep. Get coaching and insights for every age, stage and cycle. Track over 140 habits. Get a 360 view of your training and workouts. Never miss a second of that with a wireless and waterproof charger. Expect all new features all the time. Hey, alright almost here. Are you ready? Just grabbing my shoes. That's what you said 10 minutes ago. I just wrapped a video call, uploading this giant file on my tablet, looking at my watch group and Nana's with the group chat, and of course still lining up tonight's playlist on my phone. All at once? Yep, story of my life. That's why I switched to D-Mobile. They have the fastest 5G network. Okay, multi-tasker. I see you. Honestly, I never imagined I could do all this at once.

1:00It's awesome. Say no more, I'm totally switching. My post is taking way too long to upload. That's a sign you've got to get D-Mobile. So many reasons to join D-Mobile. Find yours at T-Mobile.com. Fastest based on analysis by Uclos Beat Test Intelligence The data of National Speed School results in cooperating 5G download and upload speeds for the first half of 2026. Save up to 52% off with code podcast at groons.co. That's code podcast at gruns.co.

2:01This is where Chicago comes to talk bears football. We are sports radio 1043, the score. Rockassing live from the Hyundai Studios. Presented to you in part by your local Hyundai dealers. WSCR, WSCR FM and HD1 Chicago in Odyssey Sports Station. The score! This hour is being brought to you by Bucy Bank, building business growing well since 1868. We will rally around Kurt Warner. Kurt Warner. You're a big horse. And you must be written every Monday night. Two-time NFL MVP. They talk about this at greatest show on turf. Maybe the best offense ever in football. Super Bowl champion. Warner to throw. Go and beat down. Build a testing board as ice and Bruce touchdown. 73 yards. Pro football, Hall of Fame. Not just the NFL Hall of Fame. And I wear that as a badge of honor. Because without pro football, in all its forms and fashions, I'm not here tonight. NFL Network Analyst. The FF had Kayla Brankt, whatever, 19th or 20th in the league.

3:03Which again, I think the problem is, is when we start looking at a grading system and think that that means it's a comparison to every other quarterback. Because everybody is playing different games. You know, everybody has different plays. It's not apples to apples. Radio analysts for Westwood One Sports. Ball teed up. Needless. It was a Husky last goal. Did you just call it Husky? I used to Husky so late. Yeah, I used to like when he was shopping for school phones. When he was young. I didn't do that too when I was young. I didn't do it exactly. I don't see you as a Husky last goal. I didn't do it exactly. I don't see you as a Husky last goal. I didn't want you talking about it. Kurt Warner was speaking at home. Stop there. On 104-3. The score. We love talking ball with Kurt Warner. He joins us every week when he is watched the tape. He was everywhere. Some on the ESPN desk yesterday before Monday night football. Obviously Westwood One. And he joins us on Tuesdays at three o'clock. He joins us here on the Potawatomi casino hotel. The Midwest.

4:03Best casino hotline. Kurt. Thanks so much for joining us. As we look around. There's a whole bunch of quarterbacks that are hurt. Including the one here in Chicago. What are best practices to make sure that your backup or in other cases, your third string quarterback is at least ready to go the next time that they have to play? There's really no best practice. I know we love to say and I hear every backup quarterbacks add, prepare like a starter. I mean, you do what you can, but nobody can prepare like the starter, but the starter. Simply because in the game plan is designed around the starter, the starter, and most of the situations I was in, I got the full majority of reps. There may have been one or two plays here and there for a backup quarterback. In places that I was, we would put in new plays each and every week.

5:04So there may be plays that are on the call sheet that the backup quarterbacks never run. Because we just added it and you get three or four reps throughout the week. And the starter is getting all of those reps. So I don't know what the best practice is. I don't know how you really get a practice player ready to play in a game. Unless you honestly split reps. I've never been anywhere in season where they split reps with the starter and the backup. And so for me, when I was in a backup role, you know, what I did was I would just, I would obviously run the scout team and I tried to take as many of those plays, if not all of those plays, if I could. And I would try to, you know, take the play that was on the card and relate it somehow to what we were doing, to plays that were in our playbook. And I was trying to get reps, you know, that way. And granted it wasn't going to be against the defense necessarily that we were playing against.

6:05It was going against our defense. But it was really about simulating that play in my mind, seeing it. What would we call it in our offense? How would I read it? What am I looking for? So doing the best I could to assimilate, you know, the reps I did get, even though was scouting reps to our regular reps. But I just, I don't know what the process is. I don't know if anybody that does it, you know, well, or balances that out, where a backup can truly be ready to step in and play. And I say that in the course of a game. Now, of course, you know, you give them a week to get ready. A lot of these guys are pros have been there before. Yeah, that works. But in the course of a game, you know, like last night, Jackson Dark gets hurt or Tyson has to go in on Sunday. It's a really hard thing to do in specially situational football, red zone, and things like that where you're definitely not going to get many reps. Kurt, let's stay with this concept of the backups because we don't know who's quarter backing

7:06for the Bears this week. And we should go backwards at some point and talk about the game that we just saw. And you got a chance to watch the tape. But, you know, we thought it was going to be Tyson Beijing. But now is a concussion concussion protocol. So might be case kingdom as your third quarterback, having to come in and do it. Is there a difference as a head coach if you're preparing Tyson Beijing? You've been calling plays for him preseason or case who you've done that a little and the base of knowledge and everything. Is there a difference for Ben Johnson and getting one ready versus getting the other ready? And we don't know who it's going to be this week. I'm sure there's there's something different. I mean, Tyson's, you know, pretty athletic. So maybe there's some of those plays that you have for Caleb that maybe fit Tyson a little bit better within your offense. I think the beautiful thing about case is he's played a lot of football and he's had a lot of experience and what they're going to do in their offense. I'm sure is pretty comfortable for for case because he's been there.

8:08It may not be as talented as the other guys, but smart and experienced and been in those moments. And so, you know, that could make it easier for coach because Tyson, although he's played in preseason, he hasn't played a lot in the regular season. So there's challenges all the time because no quarterback, you know, is the same as any other quarterback. And you've got to try to figure out what does this guy do best, especially if they're not a starting quarterback. What do they do best and what gives us the best chance to win with them behind center? You know, is it a majority of these kind of plays or is it more of these kind of plays? Not knowing who's going to be your starter makes it really hard to try to build a game plan unless you feel all of your guys can do everything you're installing, you know, to this, you know, I wouldn't say that it's the same level, but to some level. But yeah, that's surely a challenge, but I would almost think it could be easier for, you know, to game plan with case.

9:10Just knowing who he is and he's been here before, what you can expect from him and how to build a plan on. I, I imagine that with both of your quarterbacks being down theoretically for this game on Monday that the Bears might sign someone to just for someone to be the scout team quarterback or to be a backup because the backup now would be Miller Moss who hasn't played NFL football really. When it comes to a couch free agent quarterback, what is the best possible scenario for a guy that you could sign and bring into your building? What is he have to be like? I have no idea. I got a son that's looking for a spot to show people that he can play in the league. I love for him to have that opportunity to prove something to people. But I mean, I really don't know. If it's a guy that hasn't been playing, I mean, I would assume the best case scenario is maybe what we've seen with a Joe Flacco a couple years ago.

10:15That's exactly what I would say. Yeah, just a guy that's had, you know, unbelievable amount of reps has been there, has been in the big moment. You know, a situation like this, even though he's coming off the couch is not too big for him. You know, I suppose that's again, you know, anybody coming off the couch, you're going to get what you get. But I mean, I would guess that would be the perfect scenario if you could find someone that you felt was in shape that had been preparing and had just been there. So, you know, there's always a language barrier when you're going from one offense to another. But a lot of plays can be similar in nature. So a guy that's, you know, seen a lot and done a lot, I think would just be, you know, the best case scenario, although there's not a there's not a perfect scenario. So we saw Philip Rivers last year. We got word that Drew Brees had conversations with Sean Payton the week of the NSE championship game. Did you get a call at any time after 2009 when you retired at the age of 38 from Arizona? Did you get a call and consider playing any time into your 40s?

11:24No, never, never got a call. Discussed it a couple times when the Cardinals were going through their playoff run and they lost Carson and trying to think their backup was at the time. But they lost their top two quarterbacks. And, you know, I was on the couch and I was right down the street. And so, you know, there was speculation here like in the media and stuff. So I actually went in the backyard started throwing the ball around a little bit like, hey, you know, could I do this? Could I give them a gamer to? But they never called probably a good thing they never called. You know, there was a couple years later when my old coordinator, Todd Haley, was out there in Cleveland. And there was a situation where, you know, I was just kind of talking with him like, hey, you want me come back for a year and see if we could do this again. So we had a little bit of fun with it, but no, no serious talks. No, I'm going to, you know, I'm going to see if I can do this, you know, type of thing.

12:29Drew Breeze, it joked about, I guess he wasn't joking. He talked about how Denver reached out to him for the AFC championship game last year. And I started thinking about it. If he comes back, it would have delayed his hall of fame induction by five years. And like weighing those things on, yeah, maybe I can go out there and help them win a Super Bowl versus I'm going to the hall of fame in August. And I can't go if I go back and play. I can't even imagine like what he was thinking about when that phone call came in. I actually thought I read and I don't know if this was the case or not, but I thought I read that he went and asked the NFL and said something about that. Like, hey, if I go back for this game or two, you know, can my status as a hall of fame are still be intact. And I thought I read that they said, yeah, that, you know, it could stay intact. I'm with you. I mean, I always thought if a guy came out of retirement to play, you know, would start the clock over again.

13:33But I thought I read that, but yeah, you're exactly right. I mean, to come back for a gamer to, you know, because I think that's what happened with Philip Rivers is that it pushes him back. But yeah, that would, that would be a tough thing, especially for a guy like Drew, that's a, you know, a lock first ballot hall of fame or, you know, push that back five more years. But again, I mean, it's, you know, crazy situations. I mean, it was funny just hearing that that they called him up. You know, and I remember when I was going through the process and throwing in the backyard, I remember thinking to myself, like, you know, throwing a football is not going to be the hard part. Like, I know how to throw a football and I can still do that. But could I get up to speed mentally within one week, having been out of it for five years or six years at the time. And the other thing that I didn't want was, you know, you're not training, you might be training and lifting and doing all that stuff. But you're not training football. And I remember thinking to myself, you know, how awful would it be if I go back the first week and like on Thursday, you know, I pull my calf or, you know, do something like that where he's just like, yeah, that was dumb.

14:38Like, you know, I hadn't been doing these drops and these movements and stuff and, and you have some anti climactic injury that that keeps you out of, of the game that you're coming back for. So that was always in the back of my mind as well. Kurt Warner with us here on speaklin' homes. All right. Let's go back to Sunday for a couple things. What did you think? Having watched the tape of the way that Ben Johnson and Brian Flores matched up in the way that Caleb Williams played in that game up until he got hurt. I actually thought, you know, Minnesota really dominated the game for the most part. They, you know, they won the game up front. First and foremost, I thought they did a good job covering on the back end. And so I didn't come out of this game. I mean, you know, weather and all the stuff. It didn't come out of this game thinking, oh, you know, Caleb's not playing well and he's not seeing things. I just came out of this game that the Minnesota defense. I thought dominated the bears, you know, for the most part. And, you know, that's why they obviously couldn't score any points. And of course, they ended up shooting themselves in the foot.

15:41You know, with the fumble and the interception and some of those things. But I just, you know, I didn't feel like it was a game. You know, where it was just, hey, Caleb's not playing well and, you know, it was opportunities out there. I just thought it was a tough game. I just thought it was a tough for them to find some opportunities to get the big plays. And then those, you know, those mistakes cost him. Take us into the mind of any offensive player, especially the quarterback in dealing with Brian Flores. Like, what, what does he make you think about when you're coming out of the huddle or you're at the line of scrimmage? Say that one more time. What is Brian Flores and his deployment of his defense make a quarterback think at the line of scrimmage? Well, I mean, they challenge you to, you know, first and foremost, you challenge your protections. And so, you know, they walk guys up all over the place and you have to be able to know who's who in the zoo. You know, who you're going to call us down linemen and who you're going to block, you know, with your back. And who's your hot guy and where are your pressure issues?

16:48And so you have to understand that on every play and you've got to have an answer on every play. And then the second part of that is, you know, they're going to change the picture on you after the snap. You know, guys are going to be walked up and then they're going to run out. So you've got to be really on top of your keys of what you're looking for, you know, defensively, you know, is it a corner off? Is it a safety high? Is it somebody popping out from the inside, you know, to cover, you know, maybe your first read between the hashes? And so I think those are the things that really challenge teams. When I watch them give teams problems, that's the two things. These teams don't have a very good pressure plan and you better because you know, you guys know as well as anybody that first two weeks they've pressured more than anybody in the national football league. They're going to give you different looks. And then the second thing is, you know, do you have a quarterback that can decipher and process information quickly once the ball, you know, has been snapped because you're not going to have the same picture. There's some defenses out there that look the same, you know, before the snap and after and there's some that don't and Brian Flores is not going to look the same with both those pictures.

17:56So you have to be able to understand that. And again, find your quick keys based on them running out of there and know where to go with the football. And then Kurt, the way that Caleb went down on that first and goal, it looked absolutely brutal and terrifying. And then it ends up being a hamstring strain and he's weak to weak. I guess your thoughts on the different levels of human reaction to injury and the moment and how that's processed and plays out in the media and in football circles afterwards. I assume you have some level of experience of, you know, judging or trying not to judge people the way they react to certain injuries. I mean, I think we're all going to judge it because when you don't know what the injury is, a lot of times we're just looking to go, oh my gosh, that must be really bad. Or, oh, it doesn't look too bad. And we've seen both play out, you know, we've seen a guy that comes walking off and you go, oh, he's walking. Yeah, he's walking out of the locker room.

18:58It must not be too bad. And then all of a sudden you find out it's a torn ACL. And then you have the opposite where, and I'd be, you know, we've all experienced it. We've had some kind of injury and we're like, oh my gosh, this feels horrible. I think I broke it. You know, things like that. And then, you know, a day later, you're like, oh, I actually feel pretty good. And yeah, I mean, it don't have the same pain. It's probably not broken. So, I mean, we're going to read into it. We're going to judge it just because of, you know, the nature of things and because we are trying to figure it out in the moment. But I mean, if you've ever been, I don't know, in an athletic setting, but probably just in real life, we've all been heard at time or two. You know, we've had both sides of that experience play out for us. And so, you know, whatever. I mean, I, you know, I agree with everybody else. The way he went down, I think we all thought, oh my gosh, this must be really serious. And then, you know, you hear that it may not be serious and you may even have a chance to play next week. And, you know, you're surprised based on that reaction. But I mean, I don't really think beyond that. Like, I mean, again, sometimes you do things and things really hurt in that moment and in that second.

20:09And you think the worst and you feel a whole bunch of pain. And then it dissipates and you're like, oh, yeah, it's not nearly as bad as maybe it looked or as I felt in that moment. So, you know, is what it is. I mean, let people have their fun if they want to have their fun. I mean, you know, injuries are injuries and you feel them as you feel them. And, you know, we can never put ourself in somebody else's shoes. I was talking about this, having covered the league and been in locker rooms. I was saying on Monday that I've seen guys walk out of the locker room in a boot or on crutches. And they played the next week. I've seen guys walk normally and be gone for the season. Like, people have no idea. Like how differently, like, these injuries in the way that they are treated can can hamper a player. And just because you see a guy walk doesn't mean that they can run, jump or do dropbacks comfortably. Exactly. I mean, I couldn't agree more is that you just never know. And, you know, we're always going to speculate because we want to and we want to find the news out right now and want to know what the future has in store.

21:16But you're right, you just kind of have to sit back and wait and say, okay, you know, let's get the test and let's figure it out. And, you know, until that time, I mean, I remember one year that I had broken, I had broken my finger early in the year and I just come back in my first game. And throughout the game, I was feeling pain and I was struggling at times to really hold on to the football. And, you know, it came out of the game and I was in a whole bunch of pain. And, you know, I told the doctors and everything and we both just speculated, hey, it's, you know, it's probably just sort of is from the fact that, you know, you haven't played in six weeks. And now, you know, you're taking snaps and you're hitting the ground and all that stuff. So, went through practice the next week and played in the next game, still bothering me and we find out two weeks later that I had broken my hand in that other game. And so, you feel the pain and you understand it's there, but, you know, you kind of try to, you know, walk yourself through it the other direction. And so, you know, stuff like that happens all the time is you let your mind go one place or another.

22:17Oh my gosh, it's really serious. And then you settle in and you have a chance to recover and you're like, oh, it doesn't feel all that bad. And then, like I said, the exact opposite happens numerous times as well. Kurt, you're the best. Thanks for joining us. You got it. Talk to you guys next week. Thanks. That's Kurt Warner with good perspective on how the bears might move forward with other Tyson Beigeon or case Keenem from a play calling perspective, a game planning perspective, especially really interesting stuff from Kurt as per usual. My bag is bursting, Lawrence Holmes. I got thoughts on the Sunday game thoughts on the Flores and Ben match up thoughts on Kayla's performance pre-endery and other stuff. I'm dying to throw at you and have some conversation about. Well, it looks like we have a spot that speaks his bear's thoughts. When do I do that? Oh, okay, good. Yeah, that's the next segment. I'm ready. We're going to do that next here on the score. Bears fans are reacting after the tough divisional loss to the Vikings and the Caleb Williams hamstring injury. John is in West Chicago Caleb Williams, he's an injured. That's devastating.

23:19But we cannot lose faith in our team. We have a great group of guys. They got to state this a plan on these penalties. Matt, welcome to Hans Payton. What would have happened if with Haddon Frontfold on the one yard line, would we be looking at a hamstring pull on our quarterback? Brandon, on the road, it looks like Tyrone was for a full second before starting his motion forward to kick the field goal. Not going to help your past blockers, especially when you're so close on those chipshot field goals. We're talking bears on Chicago's sports radio 1043, the score and live on the free honesty app. What you're listening to presumably doesn't suck, so neither should your sound system. Sonos lets you listen seamlessly from room to room. Same great sound, expertly tuned, astonishingly clear. It's not magic, but it's not not magic. Hey, all right. It's almost here. Are you ready? Just grabbing my shoes. That's what you said 10 minutes ago. I just wrapped a video call, uploading this giant file on my tablet, looking at my watch gopananas with the group chat,

24:19and of course, still lining up tonight's playlist on my phone. All at once? Yep, story of my life. That's why I switched to D-Mobile. They have the fastest 5G network. Okay, multi-tasker. I see you. Honestly, I never imagined I could do all this at once. It's awesome. Say no more, I'm totally switching. My post is taking way too long to upload. That's a sign you've got to get to mobile. So many reasons to join T-Mobile. Find yours at T-Mobile.com. Fastest based on analysis by Uclav Speed Test Intelligence, data of national speed score results incorporating 5G download and upload speeds for the first half of 2026. You want a career that pays? How about 40 to $75 an hour in total compensation, including healthcare, retirement, and getting paid while learning? That's what the Union Building Trades offer.

25:19St. Louis is booming with projects and contractors need the next generation of skilled workers right now. Skip the dead in jobs. Skip the mountain of student debt. Learn a trade. Earn a paycheck. Build something that matters. Visit mounioncareers.com and start building your future today. Exploring your college options or thinking about transferring? Come experience McKendry University. Join us for preview day on Saturday, October 3rd. Meet faculty and students. Explore academic programs. Learn about financial aid. Tour campus and enjoy lunch on us. Camp me, October 3rd. Schedule an individual campus visit anytime that fits your schedule. Register for preview day or plan your visit today at mckendry.edu-visit. Come see what life as a bearcat could look like. Make him mckendry. Would you look at that. It's time for some of our favorite snapple real facts. Real fact 1433. Toe wrestling is a competitive sport. Real fact 732. The chicken is the closest living relative of the Tranasaurus Rex.

26:22And, Real fact 1599. A man once ate an entire airplane. Yowch. Did he have any hot sauce? Yeah. So anyways, this has been a refreshing break brought to you by Snapple. Realty, Real Juice. With Snapp to do the refreshing!