Monday, July 09, 2018

2018 Packers Training Camp Roster: Quarterbacks

It's been hard for me to write about the Green Bay Packers over the past few months for a couple reasons. The 2017 season showcased all of the roster weaknesses and how they could barely compete without QB Aaron Rodgers. The offseason hasn't been much better, with the departures of GM Ted Thompson and WR Jordy Nelson, the release of the latter still hurts.

But there's no time to look back and its time to look ahead to the 2018 roster. As I go through the offensive and defensive positions, I'll start with an easy position.

Here are the 2017 snap counts per NFL GSIS via Football Outsiders:
Player Snaps Off. Snap % Total QBR
7-B.Hundley 622 59.4% 41.2
12-A.Rodgers 418 39.9% 62.6
9-D.Kizer (CLE) 887 83.0% 29.4
8-T.Boyle 0 0% 0
There's no question who the starter is going to be.
While Rodgers's Total QBR fell by over 10 points in 2017 from 2016, most of the fall might have come from his only start after breaking his collarbone, a 3 INT performance in Carolina. There should be no concern about his return from injury, he came back from his previous collarbone injury to win the 2014 MVP.

Brett Hundley is still on the roster. He was useless in most of his starts last season, with an inexplicably good game in Pittsburgh in-between. He has no trade value anymore. He's not practice squad eligible and I can't see them keeping a 3rd QB on the 53-man roster. It won't happen until the end of the preseason, but they're going to release him.

DeShone Kizer. He was so terrible last season in Cleveland. Though he does have NFL size and athleticism, and his college stats are good. They paid too much in trade for him, but he should be better than his 2017 Total QBR of 29.4 and also better than Brett Hundley. Also, he's still so young.

Tim Boyle. How young is Kizer? He's a year younger than undrafted rookie Tim Boyle, who also has NFL size and athleticism though his college stats are a disaster. He sat out the 2016 season after transferring to Eastern Kentucky and he was a lot better in 2017 as their starter. Though he threw too many INTs last season in college. He's a candidate for the practice squad, where they usually stash a Joe Callahan-type, but he might be so raw that another better option could appear on the waiver wire during the preseason.

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