With the 2026 NFL Draft right around the corner, we’re going to start a series where we take a position-by-position breakdown of the Green Bay Packers’ roster and the upcoming draft class. We start today with the most important position in the sport: quarterback.
Packers Quarterback Depth Chart
- Jordan Love
- Desmond Ridder
- Kyle McCord
It’s clear that Jordan Love is going to be the Packers’ starting quarterback in 2026, but there’s a pretty big question mark about who Green Bay’s replacement will be for Malik Willis, who left to sign as the starting quarterback of the Miami
Dolphins this offseason (which will probably net the Packers a third-round compensatory draft pick in 2027).
The number three quarterback for the Packers for most of the 2025 season was actually Clayton Tune, who signed with the practice squad after roster cutdowns, but Green Bay moved off Tune after he threw for just 42 yards on 15 passes (including an interception) over two games (on top of taking five sacks for 44 yards).
In the postseason, Desmond Ridder, a 2022 third-round pick with an 8-10 record as an NFL starter, signed to be the emergency quarterback in Green Bay. After the year, he was brought back on a reserve-futures contract, as did Kyle McCord, a 2025 sixth-round pick who spent last season on the Philadelphia Eagles’ practice squad.
The Packers have, at times, had four quarterbacks in camp, but head coach Matt LaFleur has stated in the past that it’s difficult to rep four quarterbacks, so any addition of a quarterback to this room could also mean that one of Ridder or McCord will make it to the cutdown deadline.
Quarterback Consensus Draft Board Rankings
- #1: Fernando Mendoza, Indiana
- #31: Ty Simpson, Alabama
- #85: Garrett Nussmeier, LSU
- #116: Carson Beck, Miami
- #120: Drew Allar, Penn State
- #124: Cole Payton, North Dakota State
- #154: Taylen Green, Arkansas
- #173: Cade Klubnik, Clemson
- #210: Sawyer Robertson, Baylor
- #232: Luke Altmyer, Illinois
There are only 10 quarterbacks expected to be drafted in this class, and that’s with the inflation that comes with grading at the position. The good news is that only two of them, projected first overall pick Fernando Mendoza and Alabama’s Ty Simpson, are expected to be off the board before the Packers’ first pick (52nd overall) of the draft. If Green Bay wants a non-Mendoza/Simpson, nothing is stopping them from acquiring the quarterback.
With post-draft free agency still being an option at the position (players stop counting against the comp pick formula on the Monday after the draft), it’d make sense that if the Packers took a swing on a quarterback in this draft, it would be on a project that they’d hope to turn into some sort of improved asset down the line, like they did with Willis. To me, the players that make the most sense in that mold are Drew Allar of Penn State, who has a live arm but didn’t develop much in his 35 games as a starter in the Big Ten, or Taylen Green of Arkansas, a long-striding athlete who ran for 2,405 yards in college at 6’6” and 227 pounds.
At the combine, Green ran a 4.36-second 40-yard dash, which has some wondering whether he’s playing the right position, along with a 43.5” vertical jump. Opinions on what will happen with Green on draft day are split. While the consensus draft board ranks him as a fourth- or fifth-rounder, Bob McGinn of Go Long (and formerly the Green Bay Press-Gazette and Milwaukee Journal Sentinel) has Green ranked as the third overall quarterback in the class with a first- through third-round projection, based on conversations he’s had with NFL scouts.
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Give us your thoughts on what the Packers will do at the position. Will they take a quarterback? Are they going to sign a veteran after the draft? Will they just roll with what they got?
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