The Packers GM said he’s very confident the Packers could win games if QB Aaron Rodgers went down and backup Tim Boyle had to play.
The general manager of the Green Bay Packers doesn’t want to entertain the thought of Aaron Rodgers suffering an injury and missing games, but Brian Gutekunst remains confident his team could win regular-season games with quarterback Tim Boyle, who must be considered the favorite to back up Rodgers to start the 2020 season.
Boyle has made a strong impression to start his third year in the NFL.
“With Aaron back there, you kind of hope you never have to go that route, but if we did, I feel very confident we can win games with Tim Boyle,” Gutekunst said Friday.
Boyle, an undrafted free agent who has been on the roster each of the last two seasons, won the job as the top backup to Rodgers over DeShone Kizer last season but didn’t start a game as the Packers went 13-3 and advanced to the NFC title game. Now, he’s spending his summer competing with Jordan Love, the team’s first-round draft choice and the likely future at quarterback after Rodgers.
Boyle won’t get a preseason to impress Gutekunst and his staff, but the Packers already see an improving player who will be hard for Love to displace as a rookie.
“I think Tim has done an outstanding job,” Gutekunst said. “He has continued to grow. He’s had a really, really good start. I think we expected that. Tim has a lot of talent. I think his future is really bright here.”
The Packers are still three weeks away from playing the Minnesota Vikings in the season opener, but Boyle looks entrenched as the top backup and a great bet to make the Week 1 roster. Having a No. 2 quarterback with experience in Matt LaFleur’s offense could allow the Packers to take it slow with Love’s development.
Boyle might not be the future of the franchise at the game’s most important position, but the Packers are still happy to have him.
“We’re excited about him,” Gutekunst said. “He’s taken every opportunity he’s had so far this year and really grown from where he was last year, and I thought last year was pretty good. He’s proven himself day in and day out. Glad we have him.”
The Packers cut rookie Jalen Morton, leaving Tim Boyle and Jordan Love as the two backups behind Aaron Rodgers. Matt LaFleur explained why.
Cutting undrafted free agent quarterback Jalen Morton was a necessary decision in a training camp environment affected by the coronavirus, especially when the Green Bay Packers have three quarterbacks they’re expecting to make the roster in 2020.
Coach Matt LaFleur explained the decision to release Morton, who was signed out of Prairie View A&M in April to be the team’s fourth quarterback, noting how hard it can be to get four passers the right amount of reps during the summer, especially without preseason games.
“Right now, we’re at 80 (players) in the building, so that played a part in it,” LaFleur said during a Zoom call with reporters on Thursday. “Certainly, the lack of preseason games. Anytime, throughout a training camp, it’s really, really difficult to get four guys reps. Especially meaningful reps and you can see that improvement.”
LaFleur said he’d like Aaron Rodgers, Tim Boyle and first-round pick Jordan Love to make the team as the roster’s three quarterbacks. Any reps given to Morton during an abbreviated training camp practice period before the regular season would have been lost reps for both Boyle and Love.
“With the three guys, we wanted to focus on the three we know we’re going to have, I believe, on our roster,” LaFleur said.
Boyle, an undrafted free agent from UConn, beat out DeShone Kizer to be the team’s backup quarterback last summer. He’ll have a good opportunity to remain the backup in 2020 after Love, the 26th overall pick, missed the entire in-person part of the offseason workout program. It’s possible LaFleur and GM Brian Gutekunst will want Boyle around as the No. 2 while Love learns without being one snap away from the field, at least in the short term.
Boyle, who is now in his second season in LaFleur’s offense, played in three games last season, completing three of four passes for 15 yards and kneeling down five times. As a rookie in 2018, he made the team as the No. 3 quarterback. The Packers kept only two quarterbacks on the active roster in 2019.
Touchdown Wire ranks the 32 NFL teams in terms of stability and potential at the game’s most important position over the next 3-4 seasons.
Tom Brady might be the best quarterback ever, but he’s not the best in the NFL right now. He certainly won’t be the best in 2022.
He’s human, after all, and at age 42, regression is inevitable even for someone with six Super Bowl rings. That puts the New England Patriots in an uncertain situation at quarterback two or three years down the road. The New Orleans Saints, with 40-year-old Drew Brees under center, find themselves in a similar scenario.
Other teams, such as the Chicago Bears and Carolina Panthers, likely will face difficult personnel decisions at the quarterback position much sooner than that. Only a handful of teams, notably the Kansas City Chiefs and Seattle Seahawks, appear secure in their quarterback situation for years to come.
All this got us thinking about the quarterback situations of the future — and where each of the NFL’s 32 teams ranks in terms of preparedness at the game’s most crucial position.
By quarterback situations, we mean the full overview of each team’s quarterbacks group, including backups and a potential succession plan, if necessary. For this exercise, we will define the future as three to four years down the road.
To help form these opinions, we consulted with a blue-ribbon panel of one former head coach, two former general managers and one current general manager. They were asked for their thoughts on each team’s quarterback situation. They provided insight to inform our rankings.
With that in mind, we present Touchdown Wire’s future quarterback rankings for every NFL team, from worst to first:
32. Miami Dolphins
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Earlier this season, many observers accused the Dolphins of tanking to earn the No. 1 pick in the 2020 NFL Draft and presumably select a quarterback. Since then, Miami (2-8) has been eclipsed by the ineptitude of Cincinnati (0-10) and Washington (1-9), so the Dolphins might not get the first QB off the board. Currently, the Dolphins have Ryan Fitzpatrick and Josh Rosen on their roster. Rosen has failed in his playing time. There’s no way he’ll be back next year. The Dolphins have the option to hang onto Fitzpatrick, 36, who’s currently under contract next season at $5.5 million. It makes sense to keep Fitzpatrick around for one more year to help groom a young quarterback. That could be LSU’s Joe Burrow, Alabama’s Tua Tagavailoa (although his recent hip injury now complicates his draft status), Oregon’s Justin Herbert or Oklahoma’s Jalen Hurts. Two members of my panel said they like Burrow better than Tagovailoa. Either way, it’s going to take some time to develop a young quarterback.
31. Chicago Bears
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For the moment, Mitchell Trubisky is Chicago’s starting quarterback. But it doesn’t appear that he will be in that role next year — although he remains under contract and the team holds a fifth-year option on the No. 2 overall pick from 2017. Given his level of play this season, it’s highly unlikely he will receive the option year, and he might not even see 2020 with the Bears — although the cap hit for cutting him would be slightly more than $9 million. The Bears are 4-6 after going 12-4 last year. There’s one main reason for the decline. That’s Trubisky. My panelists say he’s holding the offense back and could end up keeping a good team out of the playoffs. All four panelists agree Trubisky should be nothing more than a backup. Current backup Chase Daniel’s contract expires after this season. So there’s no telling who will be Chicago’s quarterback next year. Maybe the Bears will draft a quarterback. But with a talented roster already in place, the Bears should be first in line to sign New Orleans backup Teddy Bridgewater as a free agent.
30. Cincinnati Bengals
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Veteran Andy Dalton has been benched, and the Bengals are giving rookie fourth-rounder Ryan Finley a shot. There should be no turning back to Dalton, even though he remains under contract for 2020 with a $17.5 million scheduled salary. The Bengals can cut Dalton after the season without any salary cap ramifications. It’s too early to judge Finley. Cincinnati is going to end up with an early draft pick and could have a shot at Joe Burrow, Tua Tagovailoa, Justin Herbert or Jalen Hurts. The Bengals will be starting over. But, given their current state, that’s not a bad thing. “Dalton had more than enough time and couldn’t win consistently,” one panelist said. “I have no idea what they have in Finley. But they have to draft a quarterback if they’re sitting there at No. 1 or 2.”
29. Washington Redskins
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The current situation is a mess. Veterans Colt McCoy and Case Keenum, who clearly aren’t the answer, each is in the last year of their contract. The Redskins have little choice but to play rookie Dwayne Haskins, who has five interceptions and two touchdown passes, the rest of this season. Call it an audition for Haskins. But this situation is complicated because the Redskins currently have interim coach Bill Callahan, who took over when Jay Gruden was fired. There will be a new coach next year, and he might not like Haskins. With an early draft pick likely, the new coach might want his own guy. Give up on Haskins after only one season? Arizona did it with 2018 first-round pick Josh Rosen after drafting Kyler Murray. All four of our panelists said Haskins was overrated when he was drafted.
