Kurt Warner: Back Among The Elite

One of the last quarterback battles to be decided before the season was between Kurt Warner and Matt Leinart.  Obviously, the right choice was made.   The past two teams he has been on, the Giants and Cardinals, brought him in as a stop gap until their “franchise” quarterback was ready. Given the job this season, the 37-year old Warner is playing like its 1999.  Back among the elite quarterbacks, Warner is averaging 298 yards, two touchdowns, and an interception per game in 2008.  The question is, can he keep this up?

Two problems that have plagued him throughout his career have been turnovers and sacks.  Over the next three weeks Warner will take a tour of his division with games against Seattle, St. Louis, and San Francisco which is pretty much the opposite of murderer’s row.   St. Louis is first and the Rams rank 25th in the league on pass defense, have allowed 10 passing touchdowns and have only sacked the quarterback 14 times in seven games.  They also have just six interceptions in seven games.  The Niners started out strong but have been going sharply in the wrong direction lately.  In their last five games San Francisco has yielded nine touchdown passes, and have averaged giving up almost 33 points per game.  They are actually pretty good at creating turnovers, but haven’t forced one in the last two games.  Seattle is the worst of the three, allowing nearly 250 yards per game and 11 touchdown passes and have only collected two interceptions all season long.

With the best receiving duo in the NFL in Larry Fitzgerald and Anquan Boldin, you can start Warner with extreme confidence in the coming weeks as he should lead your fantasy team to the playoffs.  I have been waiting for him to come back to earth for weeks, but now I just don’t see it happening, at least not in the near future.