These Quarterbacks Might Not Be on Packers’ Draft Board

With only Jordan Love and Danny Etling, the Green Bay Packers need to add a quarterback. Who will they pick? Let’s start by looking at who they might not pick.

Author:
Bill Huber
Updated:
Apr 21, 2023 8:00 PM EDT
Original:
Apr 21, 2023

In this story:

Green Bay Packers

GREEN BAY, Wis. – The minute Aaron Rodgers is traded to the New York Jets, the Green Bay Packers will have only two quarterbacks on their roster. While general manager Brian Gutekunst has talked about signing a veteran, the free-agent market has been hit hard.

Thus, he might have to follow the plan of his predecessor, Ted Thompson, to supplement the duo of Jordan Love and Danny Etling through the NFL Draft.

In 2008, with the Packers set to transition into the Rodgers era, Thompson didn’t sign a veteran. Rather, he drafted Brian Brohm in the second round and Matt Flynn in the seventh.

Starting with Rodgers in 2005 and including Brohm and Flynn, Green Bay has drafted seven quarterbacks the past 18 years. Will Gutekunst make it eight? And, if so, who might it be? Let’s narrow the field by looking at who might not be on Green Bay’s board based on the Thompson-Gutekunst history.

(Note: This story does not include the Big 5 of Bryce Young, C.J. Stroud, Anthony Richardson, Will Levis and Hendon Hooker.)

Hand Size

It gets cold in Green Bay and big hands mean better ball security. That’s evident in Green Bay’s hand-size history: Aaron Rodgers (2005), 10 1/8 inches; Ingle Martin (2006), 9 1/2; Brian Brohm (2008), 9 3/4; Matt Flynn (2008), 9 1/4; B.J. Coleman (2012), 10 3/8; Brett Hundley (2015), 10 1/2; Love (2020), 10 1/2.

The data fits recent backups DeShone Kizer (9 7/8) and Tim Boyle (9 5/8), as well.

That’s nine quarterbacks. The historic Scouting Combine average is just shy of 9 5/8 inches. Only Flynn had smaller hands while four of the quarterbacks had hands at least a half-inch larger.

Allowing for a Flynn-style flyer, these quarterbacks might not be on the board:

Jake Haener, Fresno State: 9 3/8

Clayton Tune, Houston: 9 3/8

Tanner McKee, Stanford: 9 3/8

But bonus points to:

Stetson Bennett, Georgia: 10

Tommy DeVito, Illinois: 10 1/8

UCLA’s Dorian Thompson-Robinson and TCU’s Max Duggan: 9 7/8

Height

The Packers don’t like short players. They don’t like short receivers, they don’t like short defensive backs and they don’t like short quarterbacks. In fact, Rodgers is the shortest of the drafted quarterbacks at exactly 6-foot-2.

With that, these quarterbacks might not be on the board:

Fresno State’s Jake Haener: 5-11 5/8

BYU’s Jaren Hall: 6-0 1/8

Georgia’s Stetson Bennett: 5-11 3/8

Minnesota’s Tanner Morgan: 6-0 3/8. Morgan had a predraft visit, it’s worth pointing out.

UCLA’s Dorian Thompson-Robinson (6-1 5/8) and TCU’s Max Duggan (6-1 1/2) could be rounded up to 6-foot-2.

Interestingly, they haven’t taken any giants, either. Of the drafted quarterbacks, Love was the tallest at 6-3 3/4; Kizer was 6-4 1/4.

If there’s a problem with tall quarterbacks, this quarterback might not be on the board:

Stanford’s Tanner McKee: 6-6 1/4.

If 6-foot-2 through about 6-4 is the Goldilocks height, potential bonus points to:

Purdue’s Aidan O’Connell, 6-3 3/8

Houston’s Clayton Tune: 6-2 1/2

Shepherd’s Tyson Bagent, 6-3 1/8

Penn State’s Sean Clifford; 6-2

Fordham’s Tim Demorat, 6-3 1/2

40

The historic Scouting Combine average in the 40-yard dash in 4.82 seconds. Green Bay’s times: Hundley, 4.63; Rodgers, 4.71; Martin, 4.71; Love, 4.74; Flynn, 4.79, Brohm, 4.81; Kizer, 4.83; Coleman, 4.94. So, only Coleman really missed the mark but sometimes you can’t be choosy in the seventh round.

With that, these quarterbacks might not be on the board:

Minnesota’s Tanner Morgan: 4.91 (again, he had a predraft visit)

Fordham’s Tim Demorat: 4.85

RAS

Relative Athletic Score is a formula that combines a player’s height, speed, 40 time and other measureables into one handy-dandy position-based score ranging from 0 (terrible) to 10 (elite).

For ease of comparison, players are broken into three color-coded groups, with green being 8.0 and above, yellow being 5.0 to 7.99 and red being any player with a below-average score.

Dating to Thompson’s selection of Rodgers in 2005, three were green (Hundley, 9.90; Martin, 9.17; and Love, 8.43), three were higher-end yellow (Flynn, 7.51; Brohm, 7.46; and Rodgers, 7.16) and one was barely yellow (Coleman, 5.56). Of quarterbacks who stuck in Green Bay but weren’t drafted by the Packers, Boyle’s RAS was 8.63 and Kizer’s was a just-below-average 4.86.

Etling, the other quarterback under contract, measured 6-2 1/2, ran his 40 in 4.76 and had a RAS of 8.31.

With that, these quarterbacks might not be on the board:

Minnesota’s Tanner Morgan, 3.60 (again, he had a predraft visit)

Purdue’s Aidan O’Connell, who chose not to go through testing, is considered one of the least-mobile quarterbacks in the draft. So is McKee from Stanford.

Ultimately, The Best QB Fits

Talking purely about measureable traits, these quarterbacks meet the team’s standards:

UCLA’s Dorian Thompson-Robinson (6-1 5/8, 9 7/8 hands, 4.56 40, 7.72 RAS)

Shepherd’s Tyson Bagent (6-3 1/8, 9 1/2 hands, 4.52 40, 9.01 RAS)

TCU’s Max Duggan (6-1 1/2, 9 7/8 hands, 4.52 40, 7.14 RAS)

Penn State’s Sean Clifford (6-2, 9 5/8 hands, 4.59 40, 9.04 RAS)

Houston’s Clayton Tune (6-2 1/2, 4.64, 9.83 RAS) perhaps just misses on hand size (9 3/8). Green Bay’s exceptions have been on the seventh-rounders, not on someone like Tune, who figures to go in the first half of Day 3. He easily hits the other marks, though.

If you were wondering, Tennessee’s Hooker, who had a predraft visit, checks the boxes with a big, bold marker at 6-foot-3 1/4 with 10 1/2-inch hands. His torn ACL prevented him from going through testing but the game performance screams of an athlete who would have been well into the 9s in RAS.

Finally, why on earth have the Packers shown any interest in Minnesota’s Tanner Morgan? He’s too short. He’s too slow. His hands might be borderline too small. His arm talent isn’t so great that he makes up for it, as was the case with B.J. Coleman in the seventh round in 2012.

I don’t know, other than standards are necessarily relaxed at the end of drafts and undrafted free agency. Graham Harrell spent three seasons in Green Bay with a RAS of 0.95. It’s all part of what makes the NFL Draft so much fun.