Packers roster projection: Does Green Bay need a new backup QB? (2024)

The Green Bay Packers sat 31 players for Sunday night’s preseason game against the Denver Broncos, most of whom will start Week 1 against the Eagles in Brazil. You could tell. Let’s just say it’s good that regular-season football is less than three weeks away.

“I was hoping our guys would come out with more strain, effort, grit after kinda getting humbled the other day in practice,” head coach Matt LaFleur said. “I think it’s a good lesson for our guys in terms of, it doesn’t matter who’s out there. If you don’t put your best foot forward each and every time you go out on that field, these things happen to you. We’re going to have to regroup, take a long, hard look in the mirror. We’ve got to get better. We need that urgency from everybody.”

Here’s the second of three 53-man roster projections after Green Bay’s 27-2 loss in Denver.

Offense

Quarterback (2): Jordan Love,Sean Clifford

Clifford’s first snap Sunday night was a botched exchange with center Sean Rhyan that Clifford recovered. His last was an interception to safety Keidron Smith, who was licking his chops once Clifford threw it over the middle to a streaking Joel Wilson. There wasn’t much better in between, before rookie seventh-rounder Michael Pratt replaced him with 30 seconds remaining in the first half, aside from a nifty first-down scramble on third-and-10 and a nice first-down sideline throw to wide receiver Malik Heath on third-and-4 deep in Packers territory. Clifford was turnover-prone to start camp before turning in a solid couple of weeks but has been shaky again recently. LaFleur said postgame that he has to watch the tape to determine if the timing of Clifford’s throw or the depth of Wilson’s route was more at fault for the pick. Even so, the 2023 fifth-round pick hasn’t seized control of the backup job over a rookie, and that in itself might be concerning for the Packers.

Keidron Smith with his 2nd INT of the preseason for the @Broncos!

📺: #GBvsDEN on @NFLNetwork
📱: Stream on #NFLPlus pic.twitter.com/triUCsduhj

— NFL (@NFL) August 19, 2024

Pratt wasn’t much better Sunday (he lost a fumble while trying to scramble and missed a simple throw to wide receiver Grant DuBose on fourth-and-1) and the Packers can probably sneak him through waivers to the practice squad. They could sneak both through, but you might as well keep the guy with a better understanding of the offense so you don’t risk a division rival scooping him up. If neither guy makes a convincing case to be Jordan Love’s backup in the next week, do the Packers look to free agency, the waiver wire or a trade for their No. 2?

“I think that last week was great,” Clifford said. “I thought we moved the ball. We scored. We were efficient and then now you get skunked and I’ve not gotten skunked in my life. So that’s very humbling. So I’m not gonna walk out of here with my head down. I’m gonna make sure that I put my best foot forward my whole week. … There’s gonna be mistakes, and there’s gonna be some tough conversations when it comes to some of those plays. This is the National Football League. I want to be held at the highest level, highest standard. I expect to be held to the highest standard. If I don’t fulfill that, then I deserve to be criticized. Take it on the chin and keep working.”

Released: Michael Pratt

Running back (3):Josh Jacobs,AJ Dillon, MarShawn Lloyd

The caveat here is that we don’t know how significant Lloyd’s hamstring injury suffered in the preseason opener is. It has sidelined him for a week now, so it’s not minor. Will he be ready by Week 1? If not, perhaps the Packers use a pre-cutdown IR spot on the rookie third-rounder and bring him back early in the season (that’s a new rule this year, whereas, in the past, anyone placed on IR before cutdown day was out for the season). In that case, Emanuel Wilson would take his spot on the initial 53. The running game was largely ineffective on Sunday — the Packers averaged 3.4 yards per carry on 26 rushes — but Ellis Merriweather injured linebacker Jonas Griffith because of how hard he ran.

Released: Emanuel Wilson,Ellis Merriweather,Jarveon Howard, Nate McRary

Wide receiver (6):Christian Watson,Romeo Doubs,Jayden Reed, Dontayvion Wicks,Bo Melton, Grant DuBose

Despite somewhat coming back down to earth after a standout preseason opener, I’m still picking DuBose for the sixth spot. He had one definite drop on Sunday, and the Packers might grade him with a second despite Pratt’s shoddy throw on that fourth down. But the sixth spot in this group is more about how you block and contribute on special teams. LaFleur showed the team cutups of DuBose blocking after the preseason opener and on Sunday in Denver, he made a nice tackle on punt coverage deep in Broncos territory. Heath will be solid insurance on the practice squad.

Released: Malik Heath, Samori Toure,Jalen Wayne,Julian Hicks,Dimitri Stanley

Tight end (4):Luke Musgrave,Tucker Kraft,Tyler Davis,Ben Sims

The Packers have less than three weeks to get Kraft ramped up. His goal was to be ready for Week 1 and he said weeks ago that the first two preseason games were out of the question. After not participating in Friday’s joint practice with the Broncos, does he do so against the Ravens on Thursday and play in Saturday’s game?

Released:Joel Wilson,Messiah Swinson

Offensive line (9):Rasheed Walker,Elgton Jenkins,Josh Myers,Jordan Morgan,Zach Tom,Sean Rhyan,Jacob Monk, Kadeem Telfort, Travis Glover

I swapped Glover for Andre Dillard from my first roster projection after the rookie sixth-round pick took snaps with the twos at right tackle on Sunday. I still think the swing tackle is Jenkins, and if Walker or Tom goes down, Jenkins kicks out and Rhyan plays left guard while Morgan remains at his starting spot of right guard. But if Telfort is the third “actual” tackle over Dillard, I think the Packers keep a rookie draft pick over a veteran as the fourth tackle.

Released: Andre Dillard, Caleb Jones, Royce Newman, Luke Tenuta,Donovan Jennings,Lecitus Smith

Defense

Defensive tackle (5):Kenny Clark,Devonte Wyatt,T.J. Slaton,Karl Brooks,Colby Wooden

Jonathan Ford had two snaps Sunday on which he looked offsides, but his get-off was just that good. He drew a holding call on one of them to negate a long run. He can be a solid practice squad piece if he doesn’t make the team. James Ester contributed to linebacker Kristian Welch’s interception Sunday by batting Jarrett Stidham’s pass at the line of scrimmage.

Released:Jonathan Ford,James Ester,Spencer Waege

Defensive end (5):Rashan Gary,Preston Smith,Lukas Van Ness,Kingsley Enagbare,Brenton Cox Jr.

Cox beat tackle Frank Crum for a sack on Sunday and should make the 53 for the second year in a row, though Arron Mosby has made some plays in camp and his pressure of Stidham first forced him into an errant throw on the interception. Zach Morton and Brevin Allen just joined the team, but each had a sack on Sunday night, Morton’s on quarterback Zach Wilson in the end zone for Green Bay’s only points of the night.

Released:Arron Mosby,Keshawn Banks,Deslin Alexandre,Brevin Allen,Zach Morton

SACK FOR THE SAFETY!#GBvsDEN pic.twitter.com/mMezKiwyUI

— Green Bay Packers (@packers) August 19, 2024

Linebacker (5):Quay Walker,Isaiah McDuffie,Eric Wilson,Edgerrin Cooper,Ty’Ron Hopper

Cooper is another one whose injury status could affect this projection. He has missed almost three weeks with a hip injury and wasn’t in the top three in this group when healthy. Like Lloyd, I’ll include Cooper under the assumption they’ll be healthy enough to contribute in Week 1, but that could change. Ralen Goforth worked with the starters recently due to several practice absences, but a concussion suffered Sunday night could hamper his pursuit of a spot on the 69-man squad.

Released:Kristian Welch,Christian Young,Ralen Goforth, Chris Russell

Cornerback (6): Jaire Alexander,Eric Stokes,Carrington Valentine,Keisean Nixon, Corey Ballentine, Kalen King

Ballentine gets Pratt’s spot on the roster. He filled in admirably last season and offers depth at nickel and on the outside. I still think King makes the team as a seventh-round rookie — LaFleur was very complimentary of him last week — but he can’t miss open-field tackles like the one that led to a Broncos third-and-18 conversion on Sunday.

Released: Robert Rochell,LJ Davis,Gemon Green

Safety (5):Xavier McKinney, Javon Bullard,Evan Williams,Anthony Johnson Jr.,Kitan Oladapo

As of now, it looks like Bullard will start alongside McKinney. That might not be set in stone as Williams could make a late push and force Bullard’s main snaps to come from the nickel to start the regular season.

Released:Zayne Anderson, Benny Sapp III

Special teams

Kicker (1):Anders Carlson

After missing a 47-yarder way right in Sunday’s game, Greg Joseph is 52-of-64 on field goals this summer (81.3 percent). Carlson is 51-of-63 (81 percent). I’ve said all along I think Joseph would have to blow out Carlson to win the job. He’s not doing that.

Released: Greg Joseph,Alex Hale

Punter (1):Daniel Whelan

Still the only specialist to go uncontested in camp, Whelan has All-Pro punter in his sights. (I kid, but maybe not.)

Long snapper (1):Matt Orzech

The Packers released undrafted rookie long snapper Peter Bowden (again), so it looks like Orzech has won the job (again). Maybe they’ll re-sign him this week just for fun.

Released: None

Note: The Packers have a roster exemption for defensive endKenneth Odumegwusince he came from the International Player Pathway Program, so they’ll likely carry him on the practice squad as the 70th man on the roster after cutdown day.

(Top photo of Jordan Love talking to Sean Clifford and Michael Pratt Sunday: David Zalubowski / Associated Press)

Matt Schneidman is a staff writer for The Athletic covering the Green Bay Packers. He is a proud alum of The Daily Orange student newspaper at Syracuse University. Follow Matt on Twitter @mattschneidman