Finding the next Hasselbeck: Why the Packers draft late-round QBs and who they will target in 2024

The Packers used to regularly draft QBs in the late rounds, uncovering gems like Matt Hasselbeck and flipping them in trades. GM Brian Gutekunst wants to revive that practice.

At the 2024 NFL Scouting Combine, Brian Gutekunst dropped a not-so-subtle hint about his team-building plans. When asked about backup QB Sean Clifford, the Green Bay Packers' general manager pivoted the conversation in a different direction.

"Getting back to drafting multiple quarterbacks is something that I've wanted to do," Gutekunst said. "We kind of went away from that for a few years. I'd like to get back to that, because I just think having young, talented quarterbacks on your roster that the coaches can develop, I just think is really healthy and important for a franchise."

Over the last three decades and change, most have thought of the Packers as the NFL team that always has a franchise quarterback. Shortly after Ron Wolf took over as GM in November 1991, he traded a first-round pick for Brett Favre, a second-year signal-caller who saw little action as a rookie. That move planted the seeds for a long stretch of title contention that Aaron Rodgers, Favre's eventual successor, would later extend into the 2020s before passing the baton to Jordan Love.

But while Wolf kicked off Green Bay's unparalleled streak of top-shelf passers, he also built a QB factory behind it. Starting with his first draft as the team's GM, Wolf made a habit of taking a signal-caller outside the top 100 picks, doing so nearly every year for the remainder of the decade. Some of those selections never played a down, but others delivered much, much more. Ty Detmer lasted 14 seasons as a high-end backup. Aaron Brooks became a preferred starter for half a decade. Two others, Mark Brunell and Matt Hasselbeck, developed into Pro Bowlers and true franchise players.

Just as importantly, the Packers flipped many of those quarterbacks in trades. Wolf turned Brunell, originally a fifth-rounder, into picks in the third and fifth rounds. Brooks formed the crux of a trade package that netted a third-rounder and a reserve linebacker. Hasselbeck returned even more, earning Green Bay a third-rounder and allowing the team to jump from the 17th overall pick to No. 10 in the 2001 draft. All that bonus draft capital helped keep the franchise competitive during Wolf's tenure and beyond.

And those lessons resonated with others in Green Bay's front office. The Packers continued to take late-round swings on quarterbacks when Ted Thompson, a former Wolf deputy, took over as general manager. While Thompson didn't do so as frequently as his mentor, he went on to draft four signal-callers outside the top 100, turning multiple of them into future draft picks via trade or the compensatory-pick system.

Reserve quarterbacks can also hold value while they remain on the roster. In 2023, just nine teams started the same player under center for every game. That figure only jumps to 13 when accounting for those who sat out Week 18 as a healthy scratch, meaning more than half the league started a backup in multiple games. Injuries hit the Arizona Cardinals, Cleveland Browns, New York Giants, New York Jets, Pittsburgh Steelers, and Las Vegas Raiders the hardest with each going through at least three starters before the regular-season finale. Last year doesn't represent an outlier either as only two QBs started every game in 2022. While Love started every game this past season, the Packers can't assume he won't miss time in the future.

Since Gutekunst took the reins in 2018, he has only drafted one quarterback outside the top 100, the aforementioned Clifford. The Penn State product has only played 16 meaningful snaps in the NFL so far, though his lone pass attempt proved memorable.

"He's absolutely proven he can be a No. 2 and maybe more than that," Gutekunst said. "Sean did a great job in his first year."

Still, Gutekunst apparently won't let Clifford's presence prevent the team from continuing to invest more picks in the position.

"There's some guys with interesting skill sets that are going to get taken later that might have a pretty good chance to make it," the GM said of the incoming quarterbacks.

Gutekunst has largely maintained the draft guidelines of the other general managers in his lineage, Thompson's principles especially. Accordingly, those late-round quarterback selections can provide a window into which prospects the Packers might actually consider this April should they choose to take one.

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