Malik Willis seems like more of the same for Packers

The Sean Clifford era of Green Bay Packers football is over before it started.

The Packers drafted Clifford in the fifth round of the 2023 NFL Draft in the hopes that he could at the very least become a capable backup quarterback for Jordan Love. And who knows? In Green Bay, backup quarterbacks have a way of becoming superb starters.

Unfortunately, Clifford struggled greatly this preseason and was unable to differentiate himself from 2024 seventh round draft pick Michael Pratt out of Tulane.

As a result, Bill Huber of Sports Illustrated is reporting that the Packers are likely to cut the former Penn State star by the 53-man roster cut deadline on Tuesday.

Green Bay also made a move on Monday to try to inject some fresh potential into the backup quarterback position, trading away a 2025 seventh round draft pick for Tennessee Titans' backup quarterback Malik Willis.

Willis, from Liberty University , was touted as one of the better quarterback prospects in the 2022 NFL Draft but he ended up going in the third round to Tennessee behind Kenny Pickett (20th overall to the Pittsburgh Steelers) and Desmond Ridder (74th overall to the Atlanta Falcons).

It ended up being a terrible draft for quarterbacks, though it is highlighted by "Mr. Irrelevant", Brock Purdy, who went at pick No. 262 to the San Francisco 49ers.

Willis now joins Pickett and Ridder as another one of the many 2022 quarterbacks who are no longer with the team that drafted them , but he does at least get a fresh start in Green Bay.

He's played in 11 NFL games, completing 35-of-66 passes for 350 yards, no touchdowns and three interceptions, while rushing 32 times for 144 yards and a touchdown. That, frankly, is a terrible stat line, but Willis did show some promise this preseason for the Titans under new head coach Brian Callahan.

Now it's up to the Packers and their "quarterback whisperer", quarterbacks coach Tom Clements, to see if they can extract any of the remaining promise out of the former Liberty star.

It seems like more of the same for the Packers, but that's life with most backup quarterbacks.