With Hurricane Aaron Approaching, Packers Add QBs Bortles, Benkert

The signing of Blake Bortles and Kurt Benkert are an acknowledgement of the potential disaster looming with Aaron Rodgers.

GREEN BAY, Wis. – When a hurricane is approaching, residents in its path board up the windows just in case disaster strikes.

The Green Bay Packers are doing the same thing at quarterback.

That’s the best explanation for the Packers’ transactions at the position this week, with the signing of veteran Blake Bortles and Saturday’s addition of Kurt Benkert. Maybe coach Matt LaFleur and veteran players like David Bakhtiari, Davante Adams and Marcedes Lewis can convince Rodgers to bury the hatchet with general manager Brian Gutekunst. Maybe Rodgers can be swayed by the court of public opinion and how it might render judgment should he force his way out of town. Maybe a record amount of guaranteed money in a contract extension would persuade Rodgers to return for a 17th season.

But the Packers can’t count on “maybe.” They need to deal with the reality of the situation. Thus, with Jordan Love being the one and only quarterback on the roster certain to be with the team for the start of training camp, they fortified the position this week with Bortles and Benkert.

Bortles was a bust as the third overall pick of the 2014 draft by the Jacksonville Jaguars. No one in the world believes he could step in and keep the Packers among the prime championship contenders. But he knows the system, having spent the 2019 season with the Los Angeles Rams, and he has a winning history with offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett. Moreover, he’s been there and done that with 73 regular-season starts under his belt. He might not have been there and done that at a winning level, but his experience would be helpful to Love should last year’s first-round pick be given the unenviable task of replacing the reigning MVP.

Benkert beat out Chad Kelly for a spot on the offseason roster with his performance at the two-day rookie minicamp that concluded Saturday. After two strong seasons at Virginia, Benkert went undrafted in 2018 and spent the past three seasons with the Atlanta Falcons – on the practice squad in 2018 and 2020 and on injured reserve in 2019. The Falcons released him on Feb. 18. He has not played in a regular-season game.

With only Rodgers and Love, the Packers would have been in the market for a third quarterback, anyway. That third quarterback almost certainly would have been a rookie – either a late-round pick or undrafted free agent – or someone like Benkert.

In contemplating Rodgers’ future, Bortles is the interesting transaction. If Rodgers and Love were cemented atop the depth chart, the team almost certainly wouldn’t have been interested in adding Bortles. After all, if the team wanted a strong-armed quarterback to battle Love for the No. 2 job, it could have simply retained Tim Boyle, who is close with Rodgers and has two years in LaFleur’s system. Moreover, at this stage of his career, Bortles almost certainly wouldn’t have had an interest in joining the Packers. Why on earth would he want to battle last year’s first-round pick for a chance to be the No. 2 quarterback? After all, with the team’s decision to not re-sign Boyle, it was signaling it was time for Love to move up the depth chart.

That doesn’t necessarily mean the team is waving the white flag of surrender in the dispute with its legendary quarterback. Obviously, if the Packers can save the relationship with Rodgers, they would happily dump one of their new quarterbacks. Nor does it mean Bortles has been told anything with certainty. Rather, it’s the team acknowledging the reality and Bortles seeing the potential to compete for a starting job.

With a future as uncertain as the weather, Gutekunst has boarded up the windows as Hurricane Aaron approaches. At this point, maybe not even Rodgers knows if the storm is going to veer back to sea or strike with full, franchise-changing force. Just as plywood is no defense against a hurricane, Bortles is no replacement for Rodgers. But, in the face of a possible disaster, you make do with what’s available.