Since 2018, nearly half of the quarterbacks who started Week 1 did not make it through the entire season as the unquestioned starter.
That’s not an anomaly. That’s the modern NFL with 17 regular season games and soon to be 18 games.
And yet, for a league that understands quarterback fragility better than ever, the Packers continue to treat the backup quarterback position like an afterthought.
This offseason has only reinforced that contradiction.
Green Bay quietly explored the idea of adding a veteran like Kirk Cousins — not to challenge Jordan Love, but to insure him. That alone tells you everything: the Packers know the risk. They’ve seen it firsthand. Love has missed four games due to injury over the past two seasons. Not devastating, but enough to swing a playoff race.
And still, there’s no clear plan.
Instead, the Packers appear content to wait until after the draft, carefully navigating compensatory pick formulas and marginal cap savings. It’s a calculated approach — one that might make sense on paper — but it ignores the most obvious lesson the league has been teaching for years.
Quarterbacks don’t make it through seasons anymore.
“Backup quarterbacks took almost 2,500 more snaps last year,” said Giants general manager in 2024.
What makes this decision even harder to justify is who they let walk.
Malik Willis, now with the Miami Dolphins on a three-year deal, wasn’t just a placeholder. In his time in Green Bay, he proved to be steady, adaptable, and capable of keeping the offense functional under pressure. In a franchise that has rarely needed to rely on backups, Willis built a case as arguably one of the most reliable No. 2 quarterbacks the Packers have ever had. When you say Packers backup quarterback, the first names you should think of are Doug Pederson, Matt Flynn and Willis, who turned around his career after throwing for 972 yards, six touchdowns and no picks in two seasons in Green Bay.
He didn’t need to be great. He just needed to give them a chance.
And he did.
That’s what makes the current approach feel less like strategy and more like a gamble.
Across the league, teams are increasingly treating QB2 as a luxury — something to address late, cheaply or not at all. It’s a mindset rooted in optimism: our starter will stay healthy, our system will hold, our season won’t hinge on a contingency.
But history says otherwise.
Every year, playoff races are shaped by injuries under center. Every year, teams that survive are the ones that planned for it. The difference between a capable backup and a replacement-level one isn’t subtle — it’s the difference between staying afloat and sinking.
The Packers should know this better than most.
They’ve built a roster that suggests contention. A young quarterback in Love. A coaching staff in its competitive window. A front office threading the needle between sustainability and urgency by doing what this organization never does by trading a pair of first round picks for an elite pass rusher.
And yet, the most fragile link in that chain remains unresolved.
Waiting until after the draft might preserve a future pick. It might save a few million dollars. It might even land a serviceable option.
But it doesn’t change the reality the NFL has been shouting for nearly a decade: your starting quarterback probably won’t play every game.
The question isn’t if you’ll need a backup.
It’s whether you’ll be ready when you do.