Which Quarterbacks Might Be Off Packers’ NFL Draft Board?
GREEN BAY, Wis. – With the return of Aaron Rodgers having signed a long-term extension and Jordan Love under contract for another two seasons, the Green Bay Packers are set at quarterback.
Probably.
Rodgers will turn 39 in December. Retirement will be on the table every offseason until he actually retires. The first-round pick used on Love in 2020 is holding less and less value. If the Packers were to be offered a third-rounder for him, would they take it under the belief that something is better than nothing for a player whose path to starting has been closed by Rodgers’ resurgence?
If the Packers are intent on shopping for a quarterback – even a groomable No. 3 to push Kurt Benkert – here is a look at which players might not be on their draft board.
Packers QBs Have Big Hands
Hand size matters, especially when you’re the Packers and you’re destined to play cold-weather games at the end of the season. In the 16 drafts run by Ted Thompson and Brian Gutekunst, Green Bay has drafted seven quarterbacks. Their hand sizes: 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.
While we’re at it, let’s throw in DeShone Kizer (9 7/8), the former second-round pick the Packers acquired in 2018. That’s eight drafted quarterbacks. Six of them had hands larger than the historic Scouting Combine average of 9.58 inches – five of them by a significant margin. Flynn was the real outlier.
This year’s draft has fewer small-hands quarterbacks than most classes. Pittsburgh’s Kenny Pickett, whose hand size was one of the story lines of the Scouting Combine, measured merely 8 1/2 inches. Kansas State’s Skylar Thompson (8 5/8) was the only other Combine quarterback with hands smaller than 9 inches.
Turning this on its head, there are two quarterbacks with bigger hands who might interest the Packers later in the draft: Western Kentucky’s Bailey Zappe (9 3/4) and Southeast Louisiana’s under-the-radar Cole Kelley (9 7/8).
Does Size or Speed Matter?
Rodgers is the shortest of the drafted quarterbacks at 6-foot-2 right on the nose. Brown’s E.J. Perry (6-1 5/8), Kent State’s Dustin Crum (6-1), Western Michigan’s Kaleb Eleby (6-0 3/4), Iowa State’s Brock Purdy (6-0 5/8) and Zappe (6-0 1/2) are among the Day 3 options who are shorter than Rodgers.
Coleman was easily the slowest (4.94 in the 40) of Green Bay’s drafted quarterbacks. Kansas State’s Thompson (4.91), Notre Dame’s Jack Coan (4.90) and Zappe (4.88) aren’t the fleetest of foot.
What About RAS?
Relative Athletic Score is a formula that combines a player’s height, speed and other measureables into one score. That number, which goes on a 0-to-10 scale with 5.0 being the position average for all draft prospects, allows for comparisons to other players dating to 1987. The 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.
For the Thompson-Gutekunst era, three were green (Hundley, Martin and Love), three were higher-end yellow (Flynn, Brohm and Rodgers) and one was barely yellow (Coleman). Kizer’s RAS was 4.86, making him red.
Purdy and Eleby are the red quarterbacks among this year’s draft-worthy passers.
So, who’s left based on measureables? In a short class of quarterbacks, Kelley (6-7 3/8) and Coan (6-3 1/4) emerge from the Combine quarterbacks. For an undrafted option, one name to remember is Illinois’ Brandon Peters, who has size (6-4 1/2) and big hands (10 1/8) but lacks the big arm to get him drafted.
