Love suffered what appeared to be a left leg injury late in Friday night’s loss to the Eagles.
Sean Clifford has completed exactly one regular-season pass during his Green Bay Packers career, which is one more than Malik Willis has for the team he joined only last week.
Those are the Packers’ two in-house options if the apparent left leg injury quarterback Jordan Love sustained in the final seconds of Friday’s 34-29 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles keeps him out of the Week 2 game against the Indianapolis Colts and beyond.
Clifford, who backed up Love last season and hit Bo Melton for a 37-yard completion in Week 17 against the Minnesota Vikings on the only pass attempt of his rookie season, would have to be elevated or signed from the practice squad if the Packers wanted to go that route. But the Packers did not think enough of Clifford to give him a second year as QB2, and after a training camp battle between him and rookie Michael Pratt, they traded a seventh-round pick to the Titans for Willis on Aug. 26.
The Packers felt Willis learned enough of the offense in less than two weeks in Green Bay to serve as Love’s backup for the opener. He took the final two snaps against the Eagles after Love’s injury. The 2022 third-round pick by the Tennessee Titans threw an incomplete pass and was sacked on the game’s final play. Clifford reportedly made the trip to São Paulo with the team but was not elevated to the roster for the game.
Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst chose not to sign a veteran backup during the offseason because he liked how Clifford played last summer in his rookie preseason and thought the strong-armed Pratt, a seventh-round pick from Tulane, could provide good competition.
