Packers 2017 53-Man Roster Predictions: Green Bay returns to 2-quarterback plan

Continuing our series looking at the Green Bay Packers’ 90-man roster prior to training camp, we examine the quarterback position and reveal our pre-camp predictions for the team’s 2017 53-man roster. Ten APC contributors submitted full roster predictions, and we will present the consensus predictions drawn from those individual guesses over the next two weeks.

For years, the Green Bay Packers exited training camp with two quarterbacks on the active roster. This was typically the case during the early and middle part of Aaron Rodgers’ career, as the Packers entered the season with Matt Flynn, Graham Harrell, or Seneca Wallace as Rodgers’ backup. Each season from 2009 through 2013, the Packers had just two QBs at the start of the year, preferring to skip over a third-stringer in favor of a depth player at another position.

However, the past three years they have changed it up, keeping three players at the position each year instead. In 2014, the year after Rodgers’ broken collarbone, they held on to Flynn and Scott Tolzien as backups, then the drafting of Brett Hundley in 2015 kept him and Tolzien behind Rodgers. Last season was the biggest surprise of all, though, as Joe Callahan got a spot on the roster out of camp behind Rodgers and Hundley.

How will it work out this year? Here’s our prediction for the quarterbacks who will make the 53-man roster out of camp.

Projected Starter: Aaron Rodgers

Do we need to explain this? I didn’t think so.

Projected backup: Brett Hundley

Hundley has a great opportunity this summer to audition for a job elsewhere. Barring injury, he should be in line for the vast majority of the snaps

MISSING THE CUT

Joe Callahan, Taysom Hill

That’s right, we’re back to just two quarterbacks on the active roster. If that’s the case, it’s all but a lock that one of these two players will land on the Packers’ practice squad, as the Packers have always kept a third QB on that unit when keeping just two on the 53. Which player gets that spot is a battle that will be decided in training camp.

Callahan had cups of coffee with two different organizations last season, being picked up by both the Saints and Browns before returning to the Packers’ practice squad late in the year. There’s a good chance that a year of experience in the Packers’ offense gives him the leg up on Hill, and the fact that Mike McCarthy was reportedly livid with his release and eventual departure to New Orleans suggests that he sees something in the young player that we don’t.

However, Hill has superior athleticism and physical tools, and at the very least has a chance to unseat Callahan as the team’s number 3. Furthermore, if Callahan still draws eyes from around the NFL, there’s a chance he could get scooped up again if he doesn’t make the 53. Stay tuned for our practice squad picks just before training camp begins and let us know in the poll below how many you expect will make the team.