Packers Sign Another Quarterback

The Green Bay Packers have a veteran quarterback (sort of) to add to the mix for the start of training camp.

Alex McGough (Photo by Vasha Hunt/USA Today Sports Images)

GREEN BAY, Wis. – An injured finger got Alex McGough his opportunity with the USFL’s Birmingham Stallions. He parlayed that chance into an MVP season, a USFL championship and, now, a shot with the Green Bay Packers.

The Packers, with Jordan Love set to take over as the starting quarterback and no backups who’ve thrown a pass in the NFL, are signing McGough following a Tuesday workout, a source told Packer Central.

It was not an immediately known who the Packers released to clear a roster spot. A source did not expect they would release either Danny Etling or rookie Sean Clifford.

McGough (6-foot-3 3/8 and 214 pounds) was a seventh-round pick in the 2018 NFL Draft by the Seattle Seahawks after a record-setting career at Florida International in which he ranks first with 65 touchdown passes and second with 9,084 passing yards.

He threw for 476 yards and three touchdowns with an 87.8 passer rating for Seattle in the 2018 preseason, 60 yards and zero touchdowns with a 31.9 passer rating for Jacksonville in the 2019 preseason and 145 yards and one touchdown with a 61.0 passer rating for Seattle in the 2021 preseason. (There was no preseason in 2020 due to COVID.)

McGough was waived prior to the 2021 season and found his way into the USFL. McGough was drafted sixth overall by the Birmingham Stallions, where he teamed up with former Packers tight end Jace Sternberger.

McGough opened the season as a backup but got his shot when starter J’Mar Smith suffered a dislocated ring finger in the first game. In 10 games, McGough wound up leading the league in touchdown passes (20) and passer rating (108.3), finished third with 2,104 passing yards and sixth with 403 rushing yards. He added five rushing touchdowns, showcasing some of his athletic ability. The 25 total touchdowns set a league record.

McGough took his game to another level in the postseason, accounting for nine total touchdowns and completing nearly 70 percent of his passes to help lead the Stallions to the league’s championship.

“It’s been crazy. From starting as a freshman at college to getting cut and getting cut again,” McGough said before this year’s USFL Championship Game. “To being here and being hurt, not playing, then coming to the championship.”

The Packers are in a transition period at quarterback. A year ago, they probably had the best quarterback room in football, with Aaron Rodgers the reigning back-to-back league MVP and 2020 first-round pick waiting in the wings.

It’s rare for a team to have two high ceiling talents like that on the roster.

Fast forward a year and the situation has changed dramatically.

Last year’s backup is now the starter. With 83 regular-season passing attempts and one start, Love has little experience under his belt.

The two players on the roster behind him have less than that. Clifford and Etling have attempted zero passes in an NFL regular season game.

Clifford, a fifth-round pick this year, started 33 games at Penn State. Etling was in Green Bay last preseason. He played sparingly, throwing 22 passes in three games for 220 yards while adding a 51-yard touchdown run.

It’s difficult to envision the Packers being confident in either player having to start in the event Love missed time with an injury. While McGough hasn’t taken an NFL regular-snap, either, he at least has played high-level football in a professional league.

McGough is 27. He had practice-squad stints with Seattle (twice) and Houston but has not gotten into a regular-season game.

“The first thing that stands out is the athleticism, mobility,” then-Jaguars coach Doug Marrone said in 2019. “He has a nice arm. Once you have that it’s doing a good job in the huddle, having control, then you look at accuracy, reads and being able to perform in the game.

“He’s dangerous once he gets outside the pocket,” Jaguars receiver Tyre Brady added. “He makes some incredible throws when he starts using his feet.”

McGough comes from an athletic background. Both of his parents played at the collegiate level – his father in football and mother in volleyball. His younger brother, an offensive lineman, was a teammate of McGough at FIU. His mother’s mom was a professional basketball player and her brother, Kelly Goodburn, punted for Washington when it won the Super Bowl in 1991.

When McGough was an infant, “ball” was his first word. “He would stand in the crib and say, ‘Ball, ball, ball,’’ his mom, Raylee, told The Miami Herald. “He would throw a ball 24-7.”

His late arrival in Green Bay shouldn’t be a huge impediment to learning a scheme that Clifford has been running and studying since May.

“I’m a smart kid,” McGough said in the Miami Herald story. “I study my tail off. I’m in there watching film and studying my playbook every day.”

Jacob Westendorf contributed to this story.

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