New Packers Quarterback Is All That And Bag of Chips

GREEN BAY, Wis. – Given the success of Malik Willis, it’s practically a foregone conclusion that the talented quarterback who resurrected his career with the Green Bay Packers will get a starting opportunity in free agency.

That means the Packers are shopping for a quarterback to pair with Jordan Love. That quest continued on Tuesday when they signed Kyle McCord to a futures contract. He will join Desmond Ridder, a former third-round pick by the Falcons who the Packers signed late in the season.

McCord was a sixth-round pick in this year’s draft by the Eagles. He failed to make their roster during training camp – he had a dreadful preseason with a 42.8 percent completion rate and 43.1 passer rating – and spent the season on the practice squad.

McCord spent his first three collegiate seasons at Ohio State. In 2023, he won the starting job and completed 65.8 percent of his passes with 24 touchdowns and six interceptions. The Buckeyes started 11-0 but lost to Michigan in the final game of the regular season.

He elected to enter the transfer portal and landed at Syracuse, where he had a spectacular final season. He led the nation with 391 completions, 592 attempts and 4,779 yards, with the yardage figure setting an ACC record. He threw for 300-plus yards in 11 of 12 starts and finished with 34 touchdowns vs. 12 interceptions for the Orange, who went 10-3 after going 6-7 in 2023.

“I think that we knew a lot more than a lot of other people how talented he was,” said Syracuse quarterbacks coach Nunzio Campanile, the brother of former Packers linebackers coach Anthony Campanile. “And he’s gotten that faith from us, from the second he got here, because we knew when we took him that he was going to be one of the best quarterbacks in America. And he’s lived up to that every day.”

McCord wound up being the seventh of 13 quarterbacks drafted.

“(He's a) really quick processor,” Eagles general manager Howie Roseman said. “The ball's coming out really quickly with anticipation and accuracy. You know, leading passer in the NCAA. You just go down his games this year, and it’s like 340, 380, 390. I mean, it’s unbelievable. He’s throwing the ball all over the field.”

Those traits stood out to coach Nick Sirianni, as well.

“What you see with Kyle is just his mind works very fast out there on the football field,” Sirianni said after the draft. “He makes good, quick decisions with the football, is an accurate passer. Led the country in passing yards this past season.

“But what really stands out again is just how quickly he moves through progressions and how quickly his mind works. Really excited to work with him.”

“In some ways I thought, can he be Kirk Cousins with the Vikings?… Can he be Brock Purdy in a Kyle Shanahan type of offense?”@GregCosell with some interesting potential comparisons for Eagles QB Kyle McCord:

Presented by @DrinkGarageBeer pic.twitter.com/zTAFDGOJ4k
— Inside The Birds (@InsideBirds) May 1, 2025

While McCord fell deep into the draft, there was a lot of hype before the draft, including a legendary comparison.

“He might have a gold jacket,” receiver Jackson Meeks said at Syracuse’s pro day. “For real, though. If the right team gives him the right opportunity, man, he could have a gold jacket.”

“Brady went sixth round. Kyle isn’t going to drop that far but, man, he anticipates throws, he can make every throw, he has every arm angle,” Meeks added. “There’s stuff you coach and stuff you don’t. Kyle just has it, man.”

McCord isn’t a great athlete – he carried the ball 51 times for 155 yards – but is a smart, accurate passer.

“Philly is really going to like him, because we were also really a big RPO team,” Syracuse offensive coordinator Jeff Nixon told The Philly Voice. “But that requires you to have a quarterback that makes really good decisions whether to hand it off or to throw it.

“A quarterback like Kyle, who has a gunslinger mentality, a lot of times he’s going to throw it. But he’s such a great decision-maker we had no problem throwing the ball 45 times per game. We knew he was going to get completions.”

He didn’t win a championship but he did get his own bag of potato chips.

“As a longtime partner in the Syracuse community, we’re so excited to introduce this unique new chip flavor, with great local appeal featuring one of the top players to hit town in years in Kyle McCord,” Terrell's Potato Chips President Kevin Holden said.

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