Monday LaFleur: Add a Veteran Quarterback?

The Green Bay Packers are down to three quarterbacks after the release of Danny Etling. What’s next, if anything, at that position?

Author:
Bill Huber
Publish date:
Aug 7, 2023 1:31 PM EDT

In this story:

Green Bay Packers

GREEN BAY, Wis. – What’s the next step at quarterback for the Green Bay Packers following Sunday’s release of Danny Etling?

For now, letting the status quo play itself out.

The last men standing in the race to be Jordan Love’s primary backup, Sean Clifford, a fifth-round draft pick in this year’s draft, and Alex McGough, a seventh-round pick in 2018 who was signed just before training camp, have not thrown a pass in a regular-season game. Neither had Etling, so nothing has changed in that the Packers have the least-experienced backup quarterbacks in the NFL.

“Yeah, that’s the situation, so we’re going to do the best with it,” coach Matt LaFleur said before Monday’s practice. “Nothing’s ever permanent in this league. We know that. We’ll just see how these guys go about their business. I do think everybody’s been working extremely hard. We’ve seen improvement from everybody in that room. We’ll just see where it goes.”

With Aaron Rodgers among eight quarterbacks who started all 17 games last year, the simple rules of attrition suggest LaFleur is going to have to make a call the bullpen at some point.

Not every quarterback is Rodgers or Brett Favre or Tom Brady. Last year, 69 quarterbacks started at least one game. Some of those changes were performance-related but the Rams’ Matthew Stafford, Cardinals’ Kyler Murray, Ravens’ Lamar Jackson and Cowboys’ Dak Prescott were among the high-profile quarterbacks who missed a significant chunk of their seasons due to injuries.

LaFleur is no stranger to having a young backup quarterback. That was Tim Boyle in 2019 (zero career passing attempts entering the season) and 2020 (four career attempts) and Love in 2021 (zero career attempts entering the season) and 2022 (62 career attempts with one start).

Of course, those teams had Rodgers at quarterback – a tough guy with a world of experience. The Packers have no idea how Love will handle the mental and physical rigors of a 17-game season.

When LaFleur was an assistant in Washington, the quarterbacks were rookies Robert Griffin III and Kirk Cousins.

Sean Clifford (Photo by Tork Mason/USA Today Sports Images)

Here are a few other highlights from LaFleur’s pre-practice news conference.

The Packers announced a big roster move with Rashan Gary activated from PUP.

Will Jordan Love play against the Bengals on Friday night or will the joint practice impact the decision?

“Yeah, that’s the theory behind it. I think we’re a little bit different this year, so we'll make a decision on Jordan. We’ve definitely talked about him going into this game and, quite frankly, playing everybody in this game; there might be a select few that don't play. We’ll get more into that as we approach the game.”

On releasing Danny Etling:

“He’s been here for quite some time. He did a lot of great things. Obviously, he was such an asset in the room, more of a veteran presence than the other guys in terms of just being able to, he’s learned a lot of football from some really good football coaches. He was great in the room. He was super-supportive of Jordan. It just came down to getting the other guys the amount of reps we felt like we needed to see.”

On the importance of joint practices, including Wednesday at Cincinnati:

“I think it just gives us an opportunity to bond. I think that camaraderie is an important part of this process, just that team chemistry, the makeup. The more these guys hang out together, the more they get to know each other, I think the more they’ll fight for one another. I think it’s a unique opportunity going against one the premier teams in the National Football League. I wish Joe [Burrow] was going to practicing but it’s going to be a great test for our football team.”