Will the Packers Keep Three Quarterbacks on the Active Roster This Season?

The Green Bay Packers have almost always kept two quarterbacks on the active roster since Brian Gutekunst took over as the team’s GM in 2018. But since Gutekunst has returned to Ron Wolf’s previous strategy of frequently selecting a developmental quarterback on day three of the draft, will Gute decide to keep three active signal callers this season?

The one notable exception during Gutekunst’s tenure was 2020. There were extenuating circumstances during that season. It was Jordan Love’s rookie year, and the first-round pick didn’t have any preseason games or a full regimen of OTAs due to Covid. As a result, the team kept three QBs including Love, starter Aaron Rodgers and backup Tim Boyle. Love did not take a snap all season.

Now, Love has firmly established himself as the team’s starting quarterback. Last year’s fifth-round pick, Sean Clifford, is the incumbent reserve quarterback. Gutekunst also added Tulane product Michael Pratt in the seventh round of this year’s draft.

Gutekunst had good things to say about Clifford before and after this year’s draft. He barely saw the field as a rookie. The Penn State alum threw one pass which he completed to Bo Melton for 37 yards. He also ran the ball in victory formation three times for minus-two yards.

Clifford did see action in the Packers playoff win over the Cowboys, although head coach Matt LaFleur put in his backups too soon and Love had to return to action after the Cowboys scored to get back to within 16 points in the fourth quarter. He took three offensive snaps in the game and did not attempt a pass.

While Clifford has limited NFL experience, he will turn 26 in July. Because of Covid, he had an extra year of college eligibility. As a result, he was an older draft pick after staying at Penn State for five years. In fact, Clifford is older than Jordan Love who was drafted three years earlier.

The Packers like Clifford’s football IQ and his leadership abilities. The reason he fell to the fifth round of the 2023 NFL Draft was his lack of elite arm strength. His play in the preseason reinforced that assessment although he did a good job of moving the team downfield despite the lack of a cannon for an arm.

Now, Clifford will face competition from Pratt, the four-year starter at Tulane. Pratt helped turn Tulane’s program around. They struggled with a combined 6-14 record in Pratt’s first two seasons but finished 11-2 and 10-1 in the last two years. Each year, Pratt’s statistics improved. He threw for a combined total of 49 touchdown passes and just 10 interceptions in 2022 and 2023.

Like Clifford, Pratt lacks an elite NFL arm. He was originally projected as a fourth- round pick but fell all the way to the seventh round when the Packers happily selected him with the 245^th overall pick.

What Pratt offers is a high football IQ, good decision making, leadership, and accuracy on his throws.

Gutekunst had this to say about Pratt. “He really turned that program around. [He] started a lot of games for them. He’s a good athlete. He’s got a pretty live arm. Very accurate. Just like the way he handled himself. He had some big wins, so we’re excited. [I] just like the way he handled himself. He had some big wins, so we’re excited. I wanted to add a quarterback and a bunch went early, so there wasn’t a lot of guys available in the mid-rounds. So, as we got later and later, he was kind of the only left that we wanted to target, so that was kind of nice.”

Before the draft started, Gute also reiterated how happy he was with Clifford. So, will the Packers decide to keep both quarterbacks on the roster, or will they try to stash one of them on the practice squad and hope that another team doesn’t swoop in and claim them.

The odds remain that the Packers will only carry two quarterbacks on the active roster this season. But there is a chance Gutekunst will want to keep both of his recent draft picks on the team. How they both perform during training camp and in the preseason will go a long way towards determining which one of them becomes the backup and whether both will make the active roster.