Although the Green Bay Packers already have Jordan Love, who is going to receive a massive extension, and they just selected Sean Clifford in the fifth round of last year’s draft, GM Brian Gutekunst picked Tulane quarterback Michael Pratt in the seventh round of this year’s draft.
This move shouldn’t have really come as a surprise either. In fact, back in late February, Gutekunst essentially told us it was coming.
“I’d love to continue to bring in quarterbacks,” said Brian Gutekunst at the NFL Combine. “Not only for the competition but for the development of them. Because I do think it takes time. It takes time, any player, but a quarterback particularly in a comfort zone of what he’s doing where you can really see his talent come out. I think Sean (Clifford) hit that pretty early compared to most, but I think that’s important you give that player the time to get there.”
I go into greater detail here, but in short, the decision to add a quarterback has far more to do with the organizational philosophy that the Packers have around drafting and developing that position than how they feel about Clifford being the backup.
As Matt LaFleur said this offseason, they’re “super excited” about Clifford after what they saw from him last season.
Pratt is an experienced quarterback with 1,469 career dropbacks and a three-time team captain at Tulane. In each of his four seasons, he steadily improved his accuracy, culminating with a completion rate of 65.4 percent this past year.
He took care of the football, throwing 90 career touchdowns to only 26 interceptions, and averaged an impressive 8.8 yards per pass attempt in 2022 and 8.5 yards per attempt in 2023. For some context, that 8.5 figure ranked 21st among all quarterbacks.
“Obviously a winner,” said Gutekunst of Pratt. “He really turned that program around. Started a lot of games for them. I think he won 21 or more games over the past two years. He’s a good athlete. He’s got a pretty live arm. Very accurate.
“Just like the way he handled himself. He had some big wins, so we’re excited. I wanted to add a quarterback and a bunch went early, so there wasn’t a lot of guys available in the mid-rounds. So as we got later and later he was kind of the only left that we wanted to target, so that was kind of nice.”
The #Packers drafted Tulane QB Michael Pratt at No. 245. A value pick on a player who was projected as an early-Day 3 prospect. pic.twitter.com/AbRY5gUDLq
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) April 27, 2024
From a traits standpoint, LaFleur, like Gutekunst, would call Pratt a winner. He has a big arm, with LaFleur adding that he’s comfortable throwing from a muddy pocket, and Pratt was able to often strike a balance between knowing when to push the ball and when to take what was available.
Pratt enters a Packers’ quarterback room that, of course, features Love and Clifford, along with Alex McGough. While Pratt may be the most recent draft pick, until proven otherwise, that backup job belongs to Clifford. Ironically enough, Pratt mentioned when speaking with the media that he and Clifford are “buddies.”
While Pratt navigates the massive learning curve that comes with making the jump from college to the NFL, Clifford has already gone through that and has a year of experience in the LaFleur offense. If there is any sort of competition that were to unfold, Clifford has the clear leg up.
In recent years, however, Gutekunst has shown a willingness to churn the back end of the quarterback depth chart. In 2021, that third quarterback role belonged to Kurt Benkert. In 2022, it was Danny Etling’s job. And last year, it was McGough.
But now, as Gutekunst reprioritizes the drafting and developing of the quarterback position, he potentially has Pratt to fill that role rather than taking a swing on a free agent who has bounced around.
“I think consistency is one of the most important things as a quarterback,” said Pratt when asked what the strength of his game was. “I think that that’s one aspect of my game that I really elevated is being consistent, not being overly conservative but not being dumb with the ball and putting the ball in jeopardy.
“Just going through my reads, sticking to the course, trusting my training, I think is something that’s really important. I’ve had four different offensive coordinators in the four years I was there at Tulane and they all taught me different things. I just got to learn and develop throughout all of that. I just think that consistency is one of the biggest things I’ve implemented in my game.”
