It's early. Very, very early. There are still 7 regular season games to be played and maybe the playoffs if the Packers get lucky. I know that the NFL Draft isn't for another 6 months. But this is something that deserves to be addressed and considered well ahead of time.
Ted Thompson built a strong roster that withstood significant injuries to nearly every unit on both sides of the field, but unfortunately the biggest weakness in his roster this year has been officially exposed - backup quarterback.
The Packers need to draft a quarterback in the 2014 Draft, and I don't mean another seventh rounder from the University of Southern Wyoming. I mean a Day 2 kind of guy, who has a ceiling higher than the one in Being John Malkovich.
No offense to Scott Tolzien, who was pretty serviceable without any preparation, but the Packers need a guy who has the potential to flourish and even excel as a starter in their system. They need a young, talented, raw prospect who can be to Rodgers what Rodgers was to Favre (without the whole taking his job part). Tolzien is not a long-term solution.
As we've seen this season, roster depth is perhaps more important to success in today's game than even the talent of your starters. You need to have redundancies. There are some schools of thought in NFL general managing that you should draft a quarterback at least every few years. Ron Wolf, the former Packers GM, made Green Bay known for its quarterback school, producing quality players under the tutelage of the coaching staff and Brett Favre. Well, it's time to reinstate the school - it just might save us from missing the playoffs some year down the road.
Even if the potential QB never takes the field as a starter for the Packers (and let's hope that's true), in this QB-hungry league, a young stud with a few years learning from Aaron Rodgers and Mike McCarthy would generate a huge amount of trade interest. It's in the Packers' long-term best interest to keep a talented young player in camp to develop.
Here are some potential candidates that would work well in the Packers system and should be available somewhere in rounds 2 to 4, in order of projected draft position, followed by their current season stats:
Zach Mettenberger, LSU (167/254 - 65.7%, 2733 yards, 20 TD, 7 INT)
Derek Carr, Fresno State (323/465 - 69.5%, 3421 yards, 32 TD, 4 INT)
Aaron Murray, Georgia (174/275 - 63.3%, 2477 yards, 20 TD, 7 INT)
A.J. McCarron, Alabama (159/229 - 69.4%, 2041 yards, 19 TD, 3 INT)
David Fales, San Jose State (205/343 - 59.8%, 2876 yards, 21 TD, 12 INT)
AJ McCarron will be undervalued in this draft due to his perception of being a "system quarterback" at Alabama. But the numbers don't like - nearly 70% completion, almost no interceptions, and he's rarely lost a game. Nonetheless, all of these players have NFL-calibre talent and could thrive under Rodgers' mentorship.
It's early in the season still, as the Packers prepare their 3rd starting QB in 3 games, it might be just the right time to start thinking about the draft.
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