Kurt Warner has one of the craziest stories in NFL history. From being undrafted and released before the season. Into working at a grocery store while dominating the Arena Football League. Then signing with the Rams and eventually winning MVP and the Super Bowl on a dominant Rams team. Then his career dropped off due to injuries and inconsistent play, before a resurgence on the Cardinals.
If you don’t have all that, that’s okay because today we’re going to look into the statistics that define his career every year. And track his path to the hall of fame through three main phases in his career: The Explosion, The Dipp, The Resurgence.
The Explosion
No one thought Kurt Warner was going to be a franchise quarterback. Not after barely making the team after being undrafted and a stint in the Arena Football League. After his first year on the Rams, he only played in one game, where he didn’t start and threw for 39 yards. Then the unthinkable happened. The starter Trent Green got hurt, Kurt Warner replaced him and went on one of the greatest 3 year runs in NFL history.
| Year | Team | Games | Yearly Rank | Tier |
| 1999 | Rams | 16 | 1 | All Pro |
| 2000 | Rams | 11 | 7 | Great |
| 2001 | Rams | 16 | 1 | All Pro |
Kurt Warner won 2 MVPs, a Super Bowl in 1999, and went to another Super Bowl in 2001. In 2000, Warner would have had a chance to win a third straight MVP if he had played the entire year. This kind of run is rare for even the best quarterbacks in NFL history, and Warner was not even supposed to start at quarterback in 1999. Kurt Warner was well on his way to becoming an All Time Great quarterback, at least before…
The Dipp
Injuries started his downfall, and after two Injury plagued seasons he signed with the Giants. His one year on the Giants, Warner struggled with inconsistent play and fumbling issues. Fumbling 12 times in 9 games, before being benched for rookie quarterback Eli Manning.
| Year | Team | Games | Yearly Rank | Tier |
| 2002 | Rams | 7 | 36 | Bad/injured |
| 2003 | Rams | 2 | 52 | Bad/injured |
| 2004 | Giants | 10 | 26 | Bad/injured |
| 2005 | Cards | 10 | 21 | Adequate |
| 2006 | Cards | 6 | 37 | Bad/injured |
After moving to the Cardinals, Warner still couldn’t shake the injury bug and was dangerously close to being out of the NFL for good before…
The Resurgence
For the second time in his career, Kurt Warner did what no one thought he could do. He stayed healthy enough and put together three straight great seasons.
| Year | Team | Games | Yearly Rank | Tier |
| 2007 | Cards | 14 | 9 | Great |
| 2008 | Cards | 16 | 2 | Elite |
| 2009 | Cards | 15 | 11 | Great |
This was highlighted by his 2008 run where he and Larry Fitzgerald took the Cardinals to the Super Bowl, before barely losing to the Pittsburgh Steelers. After 5 straight injury plagued seasons, Warner rebounded to only misses 3 games in the next 3 years and vaulted himself into the hall of fame.
Overview
According to the JTA scoring system, where quarterbacks are awarded a designated number of points each year based off of their ranking in the regular season and postseason success, Kurt Warner finished his career with 57 Career Points. This places him right next to other hall of famers including Bob Greise and Norm Van Brocklin. And while 57 Career Points places Warner near the end when compared to the rest of the hall of fame quarterbacks, it is still very impressive considering how relatively short his career was. Warner only played 12 seasons in the NFL but in 6 of those seasons he played in less than 11 games. So in approximately 6 full seasons Kurt Warner put together a hall of fame career. Warner has one of the wildest careers in NFL history, and should be remembered as having one of the best peaks in NFL history.