Former Tulane Green Wave Star Has Encouraging Game in Green Bay Loss
Quarterback Michael Pratt, the former Tulane Green Wave football star, continued his competition to earn a spot on the Green Bay Packers’ roster during NFL preseason action on Sunday night in Denver.
The Packers were overwhelmed by Denver, 27-2, as the Broncos’ rookie quarterback, Bo Nix, threw for 80 yards on 8-of-9 passing with a touchdown. He’s competing to be Denver’s starter.
Pratt, who was drafted in the seventh round by the Packers, is not competing for the starting job. That belongs to Jordan Love.
Pratt is working to convince the Packers that he should either be Love’s direct backup or that they should keep three quarterbacks. He and former Penn State star Sean Clifford are the only other quarterbacks on the preseason roster. Pratt shared some second-team reps with Clifford this week.
Clifford started the game and Pratt came in as the backup. Love didn’t play.
The two backups had strikingly similar numbers. Clifford threw for 43 yards on 6-of-10 passing. But he also threw for an interception and Pratt entered the game a bit early, with just 30 seconds left in the first half. Green Bay coach Sean LaFleur, interviewed at halftime, didn’t seem pleased.
“Bottom line, it wasn’t good enough,” he said. “We had a lot of busts all across the board. We threw a pick against a premier look.”
While Clifford worked with the Packers’ No. 2 receivers, the Broncos opted to start their first-string defense the entire first half. That, in part, led to Green Bay being down 17-0 at the break.
Pratt entered the game and the offense showed a bit of life. He did lose a fumble on a strip sack and he failed to convert a pass on a fourth-and-goal that would have given Green Bay its first touchdown of the game. The pass was a bit high and a bit behind Grant DuBose.
He finished the game 10-of-16 for 52 yards. The Packers scored their only points of the game on a safety.
Pratt went 5-fot-7 for 46 yards in his initial preseason outing last week. He’ll have one more game to impress Green Bay before final cuts have to be made.
Pratt’s legacy at Tulane is secure, no matter what happens in his NFL career. The Boca Raton, Fla., native played four seasons for the Green Wave and threw for more than 9,000 yards as he helmed the Green Wave’s run to the American Athletic Conference championship in 2022 and the victory in the Cotton Bowl over USC.
Last season he was the AAC Offensive Player of the Year and took Tulane to the ACC title game again, where it lost to SMU.
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