The Green Bay Packers are perhaps the only NFL team that hasn’t really had to concern itself with any major questions at the starting quarterback position for the last 35 years or so, but the front office may have made a moderate misstep behind Jordan Love on the depth chart this offseason.
Bill Huber of ON SI examined on Thursday, September 3 Green Bay’s decision to trade QB Kyle McCord to the Miami Dolphins and replace him as QB3 with Kedon Slovis.
And while Huber argued that the team made the right call in keeping Tyrod Taylor as Love’s backup rather than to hunt a potential upgrade via someone like Will Levis for the open signal-caller slot, he asserted that the Packers made an error in dealing McCord rather than simply keeping him on the 53-man roster.
Good quarterbacks are hard to find. Heck, quarterbacks who might become good quarterbacks are hard to find.
Keeping McCord, obviously, would have necessitated another difficult decision. Should the Packers have released their 10th offensive lineman, such as Travis Glover? Their seventh defensive tackle, such as Anthony Campbell?
Trading McCord, from a short-term perspective, might have been the right move, especially for a team that’s focused on winning now. From a longer-term perspective, though, it’s a mistake that could come back to bite them at this time next year.
Packers Believed They Couldn’t Cut, Re-Sign Kyle McCord While Keeping All Desired Linemen
Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst explained his rationale, citing a need to stack the roster with players who line up on the interior on both sides of the football, particularly early in the season.
Given that strategy, the GM came to the conclusion that he didn’t have space for McCord on the initial 53-man roster. And while he could have cut McCord and hoped the QB cleared waivers and was available to return, a call from the Dolphins about McCord’s availability signaled to Gutekunst that such an outcome was unlikely.
“We were obviously contemplating do we keep three? Do we try to get him to the practice squad? What’s the likelihood of that?” Gutekunst said earlier this week, per Packers.com. “When somebody calls you up and starts offering you, talking about a trade, I think the likelihood of you getting him to the practice squad’s probably not strong.”
Packers Passed on Chance to Sign Will Levis
Keeping Taylor on the roster as QB2 is an interesting call given his age (37) and the other opportunities that Green Bay passed up.
Levis, the former second-round pick of the Tennessee Titans, is the big one here. The Packers traded a seventh-round pick for former third-rounder Malik Willis, also of the Titans, and developed him into arguably the best QB2 in the NFL over the past two seasons.
Willis and Levis share more similarities than just being Day 2 draft picks in Tennessee in the mid-2020s. Both have strong arms and are more mobile than the average signal-caller.
Levis has just one year left on his rookie deal, so he wouldn’t have been overly expensive, and he might have proven a multiyear solution at QB2 behind Love, with a chance to reestablish his value and move on to a starting job elsewhere — like Willis did in Miami this offseason.
Packers ‘Made Mistake’ With Recent QB Move Behind Jordan Love