Mike Martz says Kurt Warner is his quarterback.
“It’s a real easy decision for me,” said the St. Louis Rams coach.
At least Martz is decisive. There is no way the NFL’s most valuable player will lose his job to third-stringer Marc Bulger because of a broken finger.
Makes sense, but Martz also has a luxury unfamiliar to Dick Jauron and just about everybody who has ever coached the Bears. Martz has two quarterbacks, three if you count injured second-stringer Jamie Martin, while Jauron scrambles to come up with one.
At first, Martz wanted to hustle Warner back into his lineup against the Bears. Then he watched Bulger set a team record for completions against the Chargers and had second thoughts about his third-stringer.
This could become a weekly ritual. And it should. Martz can say what he wants about Warner being his quarterback, but Bulger should play until the Rams are in danger of losing.
Bulger, in case anybody in St. Louis hasn’t noticed, is undefeated. When you’re undefeated, rules change. Winning trumps all. It can even supersede common sense.
Of course Warner is Martz’s quarterback. But Trent Green was the Rams’ quarterback in 1999 until he blew out a knee in preseason. Coach Dick Vermeil tearfully turned to Warner and declared the Rams would be competitive.
Skeptics scoffed until Warner took the Rams to a Super Bowl. When Green got healthy, did he automatically reclaim his job? No, he backed up Warner the next year and was traded to Kansas City to rejoin Vermeil.
It’s not like Warner has missed one game and Bulger filled in. The Rams were 0-5 with Warner starting. They are 4-0 with Bulger. It should be a real easy decision, all right.
Is Bulger actually better than Warner? Does an MVP winner deserve to lose his job because of injury? Will locker-room chemistry be affected? Will there be hurt feelings? None of these questions matter as much as winning.
Martz’s loyalty to Warner is honorable and is cheered in most quarters. The experts ask themselves whether the indomitable Brett Favre would lose his job in Green Bay if he got hurt. If Favre were 0-5 when he got hurt and Doug Pederson went 4-0, doesn’t the coach owe it to the rest of the players to keep dealing the winning hand?
Doesn’t it make more sense for Martz to have Warner suddenly become 100 percent healthy in the middle of a game when the Rams are behind and Bulger is struggling? That is likely to happen at some point, believe it or not.
Bill Belichick didn’t bench Tom Brady after Drew Bledsoe got healthy. He won a Super Bowl with Brady and lost Bledsoe in the process–a fair trade, if winning is more important than protocol.
Martz is doing the right thing by calling Warner his quarterback. Think of the storm he would create if he waffled. To his credit, he has been unequivocal, refusing to allow an element of doubt to seep into his public stance.
“I’m telling you, he is our quarterback,” Martz said. “Marc Bulger is outstanding. But Kurt is our quarterback.
Think of the eruption had Martz answered: “We’ll see.”
Martz has the best of both worlds. He says when Warner is “100 percent and he’s healthy, and he’s ready to go, then that’s fine.” But he also says, “Fortunately, we don’t have to push him into a situation before he’s absolutely ready, because Marc is playing so well.”
The more Warner rests his little finger, the stronger it gets.
“He gets all those throws in this week, and next week as well, without getting it banged or hit,” Martz said. “After two weeks, he should be in great shape and back at 100 percent.”
That would mean Warner would start Nov. 24 at Washington. But let’s play the game of what if. What if Bulger beats the Bears to go 5-0? Then what if Warner loses to Washington? If Martz thinks he would have a controversy by keeping Bulger in the lineup now, think what he risks by taking him out of it.
“Kurt’s going to be our quarterback here for a long time,” Martz said.
In the NFL, a long time is defined as one week. Martz should let Warner return as the hero riding to Bulger’s rescue, assuming Bulger is not the next Tom Brady. Bledsoe rode to Brady’s rescue in the AFC title game and all it got him was a ticket out of town.
Wouldn’t Jauron love these problems? Instead, he has bigger ones, like losing to Bledsoe and Brady, and now facing Bulger.
If the Bears do real well Monday night, they might get to face Warner, too, and take Martz off the hook. It would be just their luck.
