Hunting for Hasselbecks: Why the Packers draft late-round QBs and who they will target in 2025

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.

To some, the most pragmatic approach to the quarterback position comes from Tom Moore, a longtime NFL assistant who served as Peyton Manning's offensive coordinator for the majority of his career. With Manning under center, Moore helped design some of the most dominant offenses in league history. However, most know the coach mostly for his now-famous quip about why the Indianapolis Colts rarely gave reps to Manning's backup during practice.

"Fellas, if '18' goes down, we're f--ked. And we don't practice f--ked," Moore said.

But while Moore thought of quarterback situations as a binary -- all good or totally "f--ked" -- this approach ignores other scenarios. What if the starter goes down for only a handful of weeks and the season pivots on the games he misses?

The 2024 Green Bay Packers showcased the value a backup QB can have. In the waning moments of Week 1, Jordan Love suffered an MCL sprain, an injury that didn't end his season but did put him on the shelf for multiple weeks. With Love sidelined, the Packers turned to Malik Willis, a signal-caller acquired shortly after the preseason finale. Willis went on to start the next two games and relieved Love again in Week 8 when another injury struck.

Though Green Bay's coaching staff built bespoke game plans for Willis that featured plenty of help from Josh Jacobs and the rushing attack, the young quarterback made enough big plays to help secure victories in all three of those contests. Those wins proved critical as the Packers, who ultimately finished the regular season with an 11-6 record, would not have qualified for the playoffs if they lost more than one of those games.

All of which underscores an important lesson: A backup quarterback might not match the play of the starter, but he can still prove to be the difference between his team making the tournament and watching the postseason from the couch. Front offices can acquire those players in a variety of ways, but the NFL draft provides the most cost-effective method.

Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst hasn't hidden his interest in regularly drafting quarterbacks in the late rounds. At the 2024 NFL Scouting Combine, he dropped a not-so-subtle hint about his team-building plans.

"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 Love.

But as 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 bounties 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.

Of course, reserve QBs can also provide value while still on the roster. In 2024, only 14 teams started the same player under center for every game. That figure only jumps to 16 when accounting for those who sat out Week 18 as a healthy scratch, meaning half the league started a backup signal-caller due to injury or benched a starter for multiple games. Eleven of the NFL's Week 1 starting quarterbacks played in 12 or fewer games, the equivalent of missing a full month of the season or more.

Gutekunst has largely maintained the draft guidelines of the other general managers in his lineage, especially Thompson's principles. 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.

Right now, Green Bay has a proven backup in Willis. Certainly, he could again serve in that role in 2025, providing a reliable insurance policy should Love miss some time. However, the dearth of quality quarterbacks on the veteran market as well as an incoming rookie class with few if any high-end prospects at the position could make Willis an attractive trade target for other clubs. While the Packers don't need to ship off Willis, they probably can't justify holding onto him if another team makes a half-decent offer.

Even if Willis remains in Green Bay, his contract only runs through the upcoming season. After that point, the Packers would have to decide whether to extend Willis or let him walk, and teams with expensive veteran starters under center like Love rarely spend more than they have to on backups. Accordingly, it makes sense to roll the dice on a potential replacement now while Willis remains on the roster rather than begin the search next year with less margin for error.

The 2024 edition of this series -- The Leap's first foray into projecting Day 3 Packers QB targets -- correctly identified Michael Pratt as a future Green Bay draft pick. The piece also highlighted Joe Milton III, the most promising late-round signal-caller to emerge from last year's rookie class thus far.

All of which sets the stage for 2025. While the incoming QB class hasn't received much enthusiasm compared to the previous year's group, most of the criticism applies to the top prospects. The quality and depth beyond the early rounds look more robust than a year ago in the estimation of multiple talent evaluators who spoke with The Leap.

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