Greg Bedard: Packers need Tom Brady-esque QB in reserve

[Kerb Hohl]

http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/sports/95322669.html

Flynn is one of the reasons (along with CB and OLB) I keep pointing to this season as a "no excuses" campaign. I don't want to hear anything about how the season was totally doomed because Rodgers got hurt. Oh really? Didn't really hear the Patriots saying anything about that when Drew Bledsoe got hurt and some no-name sixth-round pick (one ahead of Flynn) named Brady came in and led them to the Super Bowl title. Or when washed up Earl Morrall picked up the slack for a Hall of Fame quarterback (Bob Griese) and the 1972 Miami Dolphins and kept them on track for The Perfect Season by winning nine starts?

JaMarcus Russell and Dante Culpepper should be on call with a vial of roids and a brain transplant. Mark Bulger? I don't know, help me out here on guys that would be better options than Flynn if you're lucky.

Great argument. Disregard the other 200 times a QB has gone down and a season has been doomed and put the Packers to the task of having an unexpected hall of fame performance waiting in the wings if Rodgers were to go down. ****, why not just cut Rodgers and sign/draft this miracle if he's supposed to win us a Super Bowl?

I get the OLB and CB thing (though people forget to realize nobody's 4th CB is very good), but nice one there Greg.

[WRau1]

I'd take Flynn over any current available QB.

[El Duderino]

We'll only find out if the faith the organization has with Flynn was misguided if/when Rodgers gets hurt and Flynn has to play.

I'd like to think Flynn could perform at least fairly decently if pressed into action, but i really don't know what to think as to ho he'd perform after watching him in preseason since he was drafted. He hasn't ever looked terrible, but never really had any wow he looks great moments either like other Packer backups have had.

[Kerb Hohl]

Yeah, personally I think Flynn is decent, I more so just posted this because his argument that there are a few teams that had hall of fame performances replace an injured QB for a reason to hold the Packers to some ridiculous standard.

[WRau1]

If our Oline can get it together, with this offense I'm not worried at all about Flynn. I think he'd put up some pretty good numbers.

[ReasonablySober]

I saw nothing out of Flynn at LSU that thought he could be an NFL QB, but the leap he made from year one to year two (based on the preseason albeit) was big. I'm actually very comfortable with Flynn as the backup in this system. I don't think he's a starter on most teams, but I think he could produce in GB.

[VegasKuehl]

What has Flynn shown you guys that you have confidence he could be dependable? I was at the game in Tampa when Rodgers went down for a bit and Flynn looked like he shouldn't QB a high school team, let alone an NFL team.

[Kerb Hohl]

What has Flynn shown you guys that you have confidence he could be dependable? I was at the game in Tampa when Rodgers went down for a bit and Flynn looked like he shouldn't QB a high school team, let alone an NFL team.

Neither did Aaron Rodgers in his rookie year. It's been almost 2 years since that experience.

[askdavescat]

I think Flynn's an adequate backup, but I think that's almost secondary in TT's mind. He's looking for Flynn to flash big in the upcoming preseason, and then hopefully be able to hide him until next year's draft. Then he'll be looking to make another 'Hasselbeck' trade. GB won't get a first for Flynn, but if Flynn had a nice preseason, they could possibly get a 3rd round pick from someone.

I think MM's a very good QB coach, and that TT is looking to take advantage of that, and get GB back to being the QB factory it was in the mid 90's.

[Ayt]

You could have written the same article for the Patriots before the season Bledsoe went down. You could have done the same before the season Brady went down.

[RiotPunch]

We are fine at quarterback. Flynn is solid-- especially in our system and with our offensive weapons. And I am comfortable with either Harrell or Shepard as our #3, that should be a very good competition.

We are fortunate to have a coach who loves developing QB's, and is pretty damn good at it too. I also agree with Ayt that no one thought Brady was capable of being the player he is now when Bledsoe was starting, same with Matt Cassel. The were pretty much no-name players that simply understood their respective systems.

[chuckleslove]

You could have written the same article for the Patriots before the season Bledsoe went down. You could have done the same before the season Brady went down.

Exactly what I was thinking, no one knew how good Brady was until he actually performed. The chances of Flynn becoming as good as Brady are slim but to say we need a veteran backup is absurd. I don't want to bring in some washed up veteran scrub to backup Rodgers.

[El Duderino]

You could have written the same article for the Patriots before the season Bledsoe went down. You could have done the same before the season Brady went down.

Exactly what I was thinking, no one knew how good Brady was until he actually performed. The chances of Flynn becoming as good as Brady are slim but to say we need a veteran backup is absurd. I don't want to bring in some washed up veteran scrub to backup Rodgers.

When i posted earlier, i wasn't saying that we need to go out and sign some washed up old fart. What i still am unsure about though is if Flynn is a quality young backup. I much prefer the route of having a younger developing QB as the backup over having say a Joey Harrington type of scrub vet, i just am not 100 percent convinced that Flynn can be productive if called upon like i was with guys like Brunell, Brooks, or Hasselbeck.

I'm confident that Flynn could come in, play smart, and complete a bunch of safe short passes and not turn it over if put into a regular season game or two. If say though we needed him to do more than that by throwing downfield and make plays in a game our defense isn't overly stout, i really have no clue if he'd be successful. Sometimes in games, the backup simply has to do more than just not lose a game if called upon.

[chuckleslove]

You could have written the same article for the Patriots before the season Bledsoe went down. You could have done the same before the season Brady went down.

Exactly what I was thinking, no one knew how good Brady was until he actually performed. The chances of Flynn becoming as good as Brady are slim but to say we need a veteran backup is absurd. I don't want to bring in some washed up veteran scrub to backup Rodgers.

When i posted earlier, i wasn't saying that we need to go out and sign some washed up old fart. What i still am unsure about though is if Flynn is a quality young backup. I much prefer the route of having a younger developing QB as the backup over having say a Joey Harrington type of scrub vet, i just am not 100 percent convinced that Flynn can be productive if called upon like i was with guys like Brunell, Brooks, or Hasselbeck.

I'm confident that Flynn could come in, play smart, and complete a bunch of safe short passes and not turn it over if put into a regular season game or two. If say though we needed him to do more than that by throwing downfield and make plays in a game our defense isn't overly stout, i really have no clue if he'd be successful. Sometimes in games, the backup simply has to do more than just not lose a game if called upon.

I don't know either, but I don't know of any free agent QB I'd rather bring in as a backup over Flynn is what my main point is. It isn't like there is some better choice out there just sitting by the phone waiting for a call.

[CentralQB5]

I'd take Flynn over any current available QB.

Youd take Flynn over Bulger???

[chuckleslove]

I'd take Flynn over any current available QB.

Youd take Flynn over Bulger???

I most definitely would.