When the Green Bay Packers drafted Aaron Rodgers in 2005, he famously sat on the bench for a few years while superstar and future Hall of Famer Brett Favre continued to start for the Packers. After an uncommonly long waiting period and a contentious period in which Favre retired and then changed his mind, Rodgers finally took over in 2008 and has remained the Packers’ quarterback ever since.
Now, the Packers may be looking for Rodgers’ long-term successor.
Green Bay set a meeting for this week with Drew Lock, a quarterback from the University of Missouri who is expected to be one of the top quarterbacks chosen in this year’s NFL Draft, Yahoo Sports reporter Charles Robinson said on Twitter Monday. He went on to describe it as a “legit visit.”
The Packers have two first-round draft picks — the 12th and 30th overall selections — in the NFL Draft, which begins April 25. The meeting does not necessarily mean the team plans to draft Lock, as NFL teams often feign interest in players in order to trick other teams into trading up or so they won’t telegraph their true intentions.
Rodgers is signed with the Packers through the 2023 season, following his latest contract extension last August. Signing for four years and $134 million meant that Rodgers was once again the league’s highest-paid player as of the start of last season.
In the latest CBS Sports NFL mock draft, Lock goes to the Denver Broncos with the 10th overall pick, with the Packers drafting Michigan linebacker Devin Bush with the 12th pick and Iowa State wide receiver Hakeem Butler with the 30th. Numerous mock drafts have projected Lock to Denver.
Ryan Wood, a Packers beat reporter for the Green Bay Press-Gazette, tweeted Monday that the Packers may consider drafting Lock with the 30th pick, in the event that he takes an unexpected drop. That was the exact scenario as in the 2005 draft when Rodgers, who had been expected to go in the top 10, dropped all the way to the 24th pick.
“The chances are low, but not quite [zerp],” Wood said.
Report: Drew Lock visiting Packers https://t.co/PvqDZzMHgN
— ProFootballTalk (@ProFootballTalk) April 15, 2019
The Packers are coming off a subpar 2018 season, during which the team finished 6-9-1, after they went 7-9 the year before. It marked the Packers’ first back-to-back losing seasons since 1990 and 1991, which were the two years prior to Favre’s arrival. Mike McCarthy, the team’s coach for 13 years, was fired by the team during the season, and Matt LaFleur was named the team’s new head coach after the season.
