Green Bay Packers NFL Draft Position Preview: Quarterback

There have been plenty of jokes made this offseason about the Green Bay Packers spending an early-round pick on the quarterback position, but no need to worry everyone; that won’t be happening this year. In terms of positional need, quarterback should be last on the list.

As we all know, the Green Bay Packers have the NFL’s reigning MVP in Aaron Rodgers, who is coming off the most efficient year of his career, completing nearly 71 percent of his passes. Rodgers also led the league in touchdowns with 48, threw for 4,299 yards, and had the NFL’s top passer rating as well at 121.5.

Needless to say, it was an impressive season and one of the best from Rodgers in what has been an already remarkable career.

Coming off of this MVP season, Rodgers still has three years left on his current deal, and while I know there is rampant speculation about his future in Green Bay, I have no concerns about him slowing down in the quarterback-friendly Matt LaFleur offense. He may not be MVP in 2021, but he will still likely be a top quarterback in this league.

So the Green Bay Packers have the reigning league MVP at the most important position in the game, and they also have his potential successor in Jordan Love on the roster as well. As we all remember, Green Bay traded up in the 2020 draft to the surprise of just about all of us to select the young quarterback.

Coming out of Utah State, Love possessed many of the traits that could lead to him becoming a successful NFL quarterback. However, he is still quite raw as a player and needs development. Where he’s at in that development process, we on the outside looking in, don’t really know given the lack of preseason games and practice availability due to COVID-19. But odds are he isn’t ready to start, and the good news is that he doesn’t need to be with Rodgers at the helm.

So with Rodgers and Love, the Green Bay Packers won’t be taking a quarterback early on, and odds are that they don’t at all, but could they?

If I had to guess now, I’d say they don’t, but I don’t think that we should be surprised if they spend one of their three sixth or seventh-round picks on a quarterback either. Rodgers and Love are the only two quarterbacks on the roster, and on a few occasions in recent years, we’ve seen the Packers carry three on the 53-man roster.

Does that mean that they will this year? Not at all. But it’s an option. On top of that, while early on in the draft you want to consider positional need along with the overall talent pool, once you get to the sixth and seventh rounds of the draft, it’s all about talent and taking the best player available. And if on Green Bay’s board that’s a quarterback, then I could see that pick being in play.

If the Green Bay Packers don’t select a quarterback in the draft, then they will most certainly sign an undrafted free agent, simply because you need more than two quarterbacks to get through training camp, and ideally, teams want to have one on the practice squad as well in-season in case of emergency.

Also, for what it’s worth, after drafting Rodgers in 2008, Green Bay did select Brian Brohm and Matt Flynn. So taking a quarterback this year after taking Love in 2020 isn’t exactly an unusual strategy for the Packers.

So with all of that said, no quarterback is not a need, and the Packers won’t add one in the draft early on. However, they need more than two on their summer roster and potentially for the practice squad as well—which makes a late-round selection or an undrafted free agent signing a very real possibility.