It appears the Hall of Fame game — the fifth preseason game no one wanted or asked for — will turn out to be the C-level affair we pretty much expected. While the Indianapolis Colts have vowed to player their starters at least briefly, the Green Bay Packers will likely be without their top two quarterbacks.
Starter Aaron Rodgers didn’t practice on Thursday. That’s a decent sign he won’t play on Sunday. Combine that with his disdain for the extra preseason game and the fact that he’s the franchise, and the Packers would be wise to sit him.
And if you were looking to get a glimpse at how backup Brett Hundley has improved, you’ll probably have to wait for that too. Hundley sprained his ankle in practice this week and appears unlikely to play on Sunday.
So, as we predicted before camp opened, third-stringer Joe Callahan will get plenty of action. That could make for a pretty ugly game.
While Callahan has looked decent in camp and was a record-setting college QB, he comes from a Division III program. Division III college defense vs. NFL defense… well, that’s big leap. Even in the preseason, even against second and third-team guys.
The Packers fourth quarterback is Marquise Williams, who played at North Carolina.
Both guys were undrafted free agent signees.
Having these two guys on the field doesn’t do much for the Packers receivers either.
The silver lining here is we’ll probably get a good, long look at the defense. We’re excited to see if Kenny Clark lives up to his billing and if Blake Martinez can actually tackle.
There’s one other bonus of this game too. Lots of Badger great Scooter Tolzien, who is now Andrew Luck’s backup.
Maybe he’ll break out the spin move.
Scoots!
4 Comments
If you aren’t and Aaron Rodgers or an Andrew Luck, the way to do it so to be a career backup like Tolzien. Make a few million bucks to play a game for a living, but still have your health when you’re done.
HUndley has a sprained ankle? We won’t be seeing him play again until the final preseason game of 2017.
That there is funny, i don’t care who ya are.
I’m surprised there wasn’t more reported anywhere when Hundley hurt his ankle initially. I only heard about it once there was speculation on whether Hundley would be able to play or not.