Green Bay Packers: Midseason ‘Silver Linings’
By Jamie Wright
Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers Dennis Wierzbicki-USA TODAY Sports photograph
Quarterback Stability
Unlike last year’s QB debacle, Packers upper management was on the ball with preparation for emergency for 2014.
Though most speculated that the Packers would only keep two quarterbacks on their 53-man roster, a surplus of players on IR enabled them to hold onto both Matt Flynn and Scott Tolzien in backup to Aaron Rodgers.
This is a silver lining for several reasons:
• Both Flynn and Tolzien have now had at least a full year in McCarthy’s complicated offensive system and are both better equipped to handle a “changing of the guard,” if needed.
• While enabling Flynn to finish out his one-year extended deal, the Packers are able to see what they really have in Scott Tolzien. A scout team journeyman, Tolzien has shown significant improvements and vast promise moving forward.
His intangibles and another offseason in McCarthy’s famous QB school, could allow the Packers to move on from an often ineffective and mostly game-manager in Matt Flynn, who has underwhelmed in four different NFL camps, mediocre (at best) in his second stint with the Packers.