If Packers Trade Rodgers, They’d Need Another Quarterback

If the Green Bay Packers trade Aaron Rodgers, only Jordan Love and Danny Etling would remain at quarterback. From veterans to draft picks, here are some options.

GREEN BAY, Wis. – In 2008, when the Green Bay Packers traded Brett Favre to the New York Jets and handed the offense to Aaron Rodgers, then-general manager Ted Thompson used a second-round pick on Brian Brohm and a seventh-round choice on Matt Flynn.

In 2023, if the Packers trade Rodgers to the Jets and hand the offense to Jordan Love, they’ll once again be in the market for a quarterback. Danny Etling, a seventh-round choice by New England in 2018, is the only other quarterback under contract. He will turn 29 just before the start of training camp and is yet to appear in a regular-season game.

Presumably, general manager Brian Gutekunst would want a veteran quarterback to serve as a sounding board in the film room and the playing field. Generally speaking, he’s been much more willing than Thompson to explore the veteran market, though quarterbacks coach Tom Clements could serve as that sage advisor.

“I was raised in this business by Ron (Wolf) and Ted and taking quarterbacks and having quarterbacks, you can’t have enough of them,” Gutekunst said at the Scouting Combine. “If you have an opportunity to acquire a guy you think can play that position at a high level in this league, you can’t turn that down.”

That’s why Gutekunst drafted Love in 2020, even with Rodgers having led the Packers to the NFC Championship Game, and it’s why he could spend significant capital on a quarterback this offseason.

“It’s like with Tom Brady and Drew Bledsoe, with that situation and how that thing happened,” Gutekunst continued. “If we would’ve taken Tom in the fifth round instead of [the Patriots] taking him in the sixth behind Brett, [Brady] probably never would’ve played. You never know how these things are going to work out.”

Here are 11 options for the Packers, with the assumption that Gutekunst isn’t going to trade up to get one of the top quarterback prospects in the draft and that no starting-caliber veteran is going to want to come to Green Bay to serve as Love’s backup. The rookies follow Green Bay’s historic draft standards and the veterans are slanted toward players with some schematic background.

Free Agency: Cooper Rush

When Dak Prescott missed five games last season, the Cowboys went 4-1 with Rush running the show. He completed 58.0 percent of his passes with five touchdowns and three interceptions. Really, he only played poorly in one game, with the three picks coming at Philadelphia. Maybe he’ll follow Kellen Moore to the Chargers.

Free Agency: Jacoby Brissett

A third-round pick in 2016, Brissett has started 48 games in his career. That includes fashioning an 88.9 passer rating in 11 starts last season for Cleveland. He’s good enough to push Love on the practice field and experienced enough that he’d be able to step in and give the Packers a shot to win should Love go down.

Free Agency: Marcus Mariota

When Packers coach Matt LaFleur was offensive coordinator for the Tennessee Titans in 2018, Mariota went 7-6 as the starter and ranked among the NFL leaders with a 68.9 percent completion rate. A bust as the second pick of the 2015 draft? Sure, but he’s got about 2,100 passing attempts of experience to draw upon.

Free Agency: Drew Lock

Before there was Love, there almost was Lock. Before the 2019 draft, the Packers brought Lock in for a predraft visit. They might have drafted him but Denver vaulted over Green Bay to grab him at No. 42 overall – two spots before the Packers were on the clock. Lock has been a bust – 8-13 in 21 starts with 25 touchdowns vs. 20 interceptions – but if Gutekunst liked Lock in 2019, he might like him today.

Free Agency: Mike White

Matt LaFleur’s brother, Mike, was the Jets’ offensive coordinator last season. That didn’t work well – Mike LaFleur was one-and-done as the Jets had one of the worst offenses in the NFL – but White started four games and threw 175 passes last year in a similar system.

Free Agency: Nick Mullens

Mullens has a deep background in a LaFleur-style offense, having spent four years in San Francisco and last season in Minnesota. In five seasons, he’s only 5-12 as the starter with 27 touchdowns vs. 23 interceptions but he’s got a lot of experience. In four appearances with the Vikings, he completed 21-of-25 passes.

Free Agency: Chase Daniel

There’s a reason why Daniel went from undrafted free agent in 2009 to serving as the backup with the Chargers the last two seasons. He’s just so smart. While he’s started only five games and thrown nine touchdown passes in his career, his wisdom would be an asset for Love.

Draft – Second round: Hendon Hooker

Hooker might have been in the first-round mix if not for the late-season ACL tear. During his final two seasons at Tennessee, he was at about 69 percent completions with 58 touchdowns vs. five interceptions. At 6-foot-3 and 217 pounds with massive 10 1/2-inch hands, he fits the size parameters perfectly. The Packers took Brohm in the second round in 2008; could they take Hooker in 2023?

Draft – Fifth or sixth round: Aidan O’Connell

The middle rounds are bereft of Packers-style quarterbacks. They’re either too small or too unathletic. During his final two seasons at Purdue, O’Connell completed 67.6 percent of his passes with 50 touchdowns and 24 interceptions. Measured 6-foot-3 with 9 3/4-inch hands but might lack the desired mobility for Green Bay’s system.

Draft – Sixth or seventh round: Tyson Bagent

A second-team All-American as a senior at Shepherd, he completed 70.0 percent of his passes for 4,580 yards and 41 touchdowns. He completed 17-of-22 passes in the Senior Bowl, the premier college all-star game. He measured 6-foot-3 1/8 with 9 1/2-inch hands and ran his 40 in 4.79 seconds.

Draft – Seventh round or undrafted: Max Duggan

Duggan led the Horned Frogs all the way to the national championship game. He completed 63.7 percent of his passes for 3,698 yards with 32 touchdowns vs. eight interceptions as a senior. Between passing and rushing, he accounted for 101 touchdowns. Duggan’s a bit undersized (6-1 1/2) but has the hand size (9 7/8) and wheels (4.52). He just lacks the arm strength.