McGough was signed to Green Bay practice squad last season after joining the team in July.

The Green Bay Packers appear to be clearing the road for 2023 fifth-round pick Sean Clifford and 2024 seventh-round pick Michael Pratt to have a legitimate quarterback battle this preseason as Jordan Love’s backup. In the team’s most recent roster update, the Packers have listed former third-string quarterback Alex McGough as a receiver — which leaves the team with just three quarterbacks on their 90-man roster.

McGough, a 2018 draft choice by the Seattle Seahawks, bounced around the NFL for four seasons before landing with the Birmingham Stallions in 2022. In his second year at the USFL level, McGough was able to earn the starting quarterback job for the Stallions, earning the USFL MVP as he passed for 2,105 yards and 20 touchdowns over nine starts for Birmingham. He also recorded eight passing touchdowns in the team’s two playoff games — which led to a Stallions league championship.

Following the 2023 USFL season, he signed with the Packers in July. Unable to beat out Clifford for a spot on the 53-man roster, McGough served as the team’s practice squad quarterback in 2023 and signed a reserve/futures deal with Green Bay going into 2024.

Receiver shouldn’t be a brand new position for McGough, as cornerback Jaire Alexander revealed that McGough was working as a pass-catcher during the 2023 season on the scout team. McGough apparently had a collision with Alexander during practice last year, which is how Alexander’s back got injured.

At the moment, both Pratt and kicker Anders Carlson are assigned the number #17, just another example of how the pressure has turned up in the quarterback room. At least one of those players will need to change their numbers if they both make the 53-man roster at the end of cutdowns.

Based on our staff exercise of trying to project the Packers’ 53-man roster, it’s going to be tough for McGough to make the 2024 Green Bay team as a receiver. The squad returns eight notable receivers this season: Christian Watson Jayden Reed, Romeo Doubs, Dontayvion Wicks, Bo Melton, Malik Heath, Samori Toure and Grant DuBose. Five of those players were draft picks made by the Packers who are still on rookie contracts. Heath made the team as an undrafted free agent last year. Melton was a former Seahawks draft pick who recorded a 100-yard game versus the Minnesota Vikings in his lone start of 2023 and also contributed to the team’s playoff rotation.

With their first pick in the #USFLDraft, the #Stallions take QB Alex McGough.

He scored a 7.82 #RAS out of a possible 10.0. This rates 152 out of 694 QBs from 1987 to 2018. pic.twitter.com/jpO9kly0r0

— Kent Lee Platte (@MathBomb) February 23, 2022

McGough is athletic for a quarterback, but you have to wonder if the 28-year-old convert will make a dent in the team’s depth chart at receiver with a 4.62-second 40-yard dash time and agility scores that already rank poorly among NFL quarterbacks.

Packers Officially Sever Last Tie to Darnell Savage

The Green Bay Packers have officially moved on from safety Darnell Savage.

Green Bay Packers head coach Matt LaFleur congratulates safety Darnell Savage (26) during the second / Mark Hoffman/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

The Green Bay Packers’ 2024 offseason has featured no shortage of splits from key veterans. One player who’s already settling into a new home is former safety Darnell Savage after he signed with the Jacksonville Jaguars in free agency.

While Green Bay’s already moved on from Savage by inking star Xavier McKinney and drafting Javon Bullard in the second round, the Packers eliminated their last tie to Savage on Tuesday.

Packers CB Corey Ballentine has a new number.

No longer No. 35.

He took Darnell Savage's No. 26

— Zach Kruse (@zachkruse2) April 30, 2024

As Zach Kruse of The Packers Wire pointed out, Packers cornerback Corey Ballentine has changed his number from 35 to 26. Those digits were previously owned by Savage, who wore No. 26 for his entire five-year stint in Green Bay.

This was the last real thing tying Savage to the Packers, who’ve wasted no time revamping their safety room after the position costed them a deeper playoff run this past postseason.

McKinney comes over from the New York Giants after proving himself as one of the league’s top young safeties. Bullard, meanwhile, showed the makings of another rising star at Georgia, where he notched four interceptions, 8.0 tackles for loss, 3.5 sacks and eight passes defended over the past two seasons.

The Packers ended up double- and triple-dipping at this position in the draft, though, to complete their overhaul. Green Bay went on to select Oregon Evan Williams in the fourth round, then chose Oregon State’s Kitan Oladapo in the fifth.

Hopefully one of Bullard, Williams or Oladapo starts their career as strong as Savage, who recorded eight INTs and 26 PD over his first three years in Green Bay.