Packers Release Sean Clifford, Michael Pratt After Acquiring Malik Willis

One day after trading for Malik Willis, the Packers have released both of their young backup quarterbacks, Sean Clifford and Michael Pratt.

The Green Bay Packers released QB Sean Clifford on Tuesday. / Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports

GREEN BAY, Wis. – The Green Bay Packers have released quarterbacks Sean Clifford and Michael Pratt, sources told Packers on SI, as part of their 53-man roster cut on Tuesday.

The moves come on the heels of the team’s trade for quarterback Malik Willis.

A source did not believe either quarterback would be claimed on waivers.

While the plan, obviously, is for Willis to eventually serve as Jordan Love’s backup, the Packers hope to bring back Clifford to the practice squad, a source said.

With such a short turnaround between the trade and the Week 1 game against the Philadelphia Eagles in Brazil on Sept. 6, there’s a good chance that Clifford will be elevated from the practice squad to be the No. 2 quarterback until Willis has a firm grasp of the playbook and has proven he’s an upgrade.

Nothing really has been settled, in reality. The Packers gave up only a seventh-round pick for Willis and aren’t on the hook for any money other than his salary, which isn’t guaranteed. So, it’s possible there will be an in-season competition between Clifford and Willis to determine who really will be Love’s backup.

“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts” - Winston Churchill

— Sean Clifford (@seancliff14) August 27, 2024

Both quarterbacks struggled with inconsistency throughout training camp and the preseason. Clifford started training camp with a big lead over Pratt, but Clifford slowly lost his grasp on the job after making too many mistakes.

“It’s not my decision to have,” Clifford said when asked after Saturday’s final preseason game if he thought he’d done enough to win the No. 2 job.

“I think the world of Mike (Pratt). I think that he’s a great player. I think that I’m also a great player, so it’s not my decision to have here. I think they should keep all of us.”

Instead, they kept neither. With both quarterbacks ranking toward the bottom of the NFL in yards per passing attempt in the preseason, general manager Brian Gutekunst opted to acquire Willis, a third-round pick by the Tennessee Titans in 2022, rather than go with one of his recent draft picks.

After the game, Clifford was ready to put the competition behind him and focus on getting ready for the season. In the world of backup quarterbacks, that meant getting himself prepared to be of assistance to Love throughout the week and on gameday.

That meant diving into the film of the Eagles and Indianapolis Colts, the first two opponents.

“Get ready for the Eagles (and) start watching some tape on Philly,” Clifford said. “Obviously, with camp, it’s just been very install-centric, so (we’ve) just not been able to get the reps to look at the ‘Birds’ yet, so (we’ll) just start to break down some tape there, get ahead of it, maybe even watch some Indy (film) as well, just so that way it makes Week 1 that much easier.”

Pratt is a talented thrower of the football; his back-shoulder touchdown pass to Bo Melton against the Ravens was magnificent. However, his interception later in the game was as ugly as the touchdown was beautiful.

“There are a lot of tough decisions that are going to have to be made and some really good football players on this team,” Pratt said after the game. “They’re going to do what’s best for the team and whatever is going to have an impact with winning the most games this year.”

Stunningly, Pratt in the span of a few days has fallen out of the No. 2 competition in Green Bay and now will be hoping to latch onto a practice squad somewhere else.

“I think I had a pretty good camp, and I just think the most important thing was to learn throughout,” Pratt said. “I think there were a lot of things I really learned throughout the process, and I think I got a little bit better every single day, so that was what was really important to me.”

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