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The Green Bay Packers recently signed a Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin native, safety Kyle Sebetic, to the team's 90-man roster. Today, it appears, they are bringing another player with Wisconsin connections back to America's Dairyland.
Quarterback Matt Blanchard has signed with the Packers today, as his personal quarterback coach announced on Twitter:
Just Received call from 4 year student @Matt_Blanchard_ he is signing with Green Bay @packers @veryproud @throwitdeep @gwtp @buildingQBs
— #throwitdeep (@ThrowItDeep) April 15, 2015
If that wasn't enough confirmation, here's Blanchard's agent:
CONGRATS to QB @Matt_Blanchard_ on signing with the @packers! Won 3 National titles at Wisc-WW! Previous seasons with @Bears & @Panthers.
— Paul Sheehy (@ProStarSports) April 15, 2015
(h/t to @RobDemovsky for finding the tweets)
As Sheehy noted, Blanchard won three Division III championships at Whitewater, helping his team earn the title in each of his three years there in 2009, 2010, and 2011. (Whitewater has since won two more titles, in 2013 and 2014.) Over those three years, he threw for just over 5,000 yards and 44 touchdowns.
Blanchard, a native of Lake Zurich, Illinois, spent most of the 2012 season on the Chicago Bears' practice squad and was in training camp in Chicago in 2013 before being waived late in camp on an injury settlement. He was then picked up by the Carolina Panthers late in the 2013 season and spent the 2014 offseason with the team, but was placed on injured reserve in training camp. He was later waived with an injury settlement in December 2014.
Blanchard will join Scott Tolzien, who also played his college football in Wisconsin for the Badgers, as the two backup quarterbacks on the Packers' roster behind starter Aaron Rodgers.