GREEN BAY — With a rising NFL star entering his second season as a starter and a backup they genuinely like, the Green Bay Packers would seemingly be content at quarterback heading into the 2024 season.

But they’re not.

Sure, Jordan Love finished his first season as the starter on an impressive heater (a 70.3% completion percentage, 112.7 passer rating and an 18-to-1 touchdowns-to-interceptions ratio over the final eight regular-season games) and was near-perfect in the team’s playoff win over the Cowboys (three touchdowns, no interceptions, 157.2 passer rating). The only questions that seemingly remain about him are when he’ll get his lucrative long-term contract extension and whether it will reset the quarterback market.

And yes, backup Sean Clifford, who is — counterintuitively, considering Love just finished his fourth NFL season while Clifford was a rookie last year — four months older than Love, seems to perfectly fit the Packers’ suit of a No. 2 quarterback. He’s smart, understands what needs to be done during the work week to help Love prepare, and appears to have the personality and moxie to come into a game and rally the troops should an injury befall Love.

But general manager Brian Gutekunst, a disciple of GM predecessors Ron Wolf (the Pro Football Hall of Famer who gave Gutekunst his first NFL break as a scouting intern in 1997) and Ted Thompson (Gutekunst’s mentor during his rise up the personnel staff hierarchy), wants to take a page out of Wolf’s book and start using a draft pick annually on the game’s most vital position.

“For me, getting back to drafting multiple quarterbacks is something that I’ve wanted to do,” Gutekunst said earlier this offseason. “We kind of went away from that for a few years, and I’d like to get back to that because I just think having young, talented quarterbacks on your roster that the coaches can develop is really healthy and important for a franchise.”

Although both Wolf’s and Thompson’s successes as GMs can be traced directly to the quarterbacks they acquired — Pro Football Hall of Famer Brett Favre, whom Wolf got in a 1992 trade with the Atlanta Falcons, and future Hall of Famer Aaron Rodgers, whom Thompson picked during the 2005 NFL Draft after Rodgers had been in the conversation to be the No. 1 overall pick — both men were willing to take frequent late-in-the-draft fliers on quarterbacks. Especially Wolf.

While Favre led the 1996 Packers to the Super Bowl XXXI title, and Rodgers led the 2010 team to the Super Bowl XLV championship, both Favre and Thompson still used more draft capital on quarterbacks than Gutekunst, who is entering his eighth draft as GM.

During his nine drafts with full control of the selection process — he deferred to coach and soon-to-be GM Mike Sherman during the 2001 draft, conducted a few months before Wolf’s retirement — Wolf selected seven quarterbacks, despite having Favre.

And while ultra-durable Favre was the game’s greatest quarterback ironman, never missing a start in his 16 seasons in Green Bay, Wolf not only saw the quarterbacks he picked as valuable backup options in case of emergency, but also as tradeable assets for the future.

So while they scarcely played during their Packers career, three quarterbacks in particular turned into trade bait and future starters with other clubs: 1993 fifth-round pick Mark Brunell was traded to the Jacksonville Jaguars for third- and fifth-round picks in the 1995 draft; 1999 fourth-round pick Aaron Brooks was dealt to the New Orleans Saints during training camp in 2000 for a third-round pick in the 2001 draft; and 1998 sixth-round pick Matt Hasselbeck was sent to the Seattle Seahawks along with the 17th overall pick before the 2001 draft in exchange for the 10th overall pick and a third-round pick.

“My idea has always been that the key position in professional football is the quarterback, and you’d better protect yourself at that position as best you can,” Wolf told the State Journal in late February. “I was in it 41 years, and the best player in my whole time was Brett Favre. So I knew that it was going to be awfully difficult for someone to come to Green Bay and replace him.

“So, the thought process was, you need to protect yourself at that position. I think we did a pretty good job there with Brooks and Hasselbeck and Brunell. But it was PYA — protect your a– — at a key position. It was very important.”

After Wolf’s retirement, Sherman drafted just one QB during his four years as coach/GM. And while Thompson’s decision to take Rodgers gave the Packers three decades of virtually uninterrupted greatness at quarterback, Thompson only took five other QBs in his subsequent 12 drafts — and two of them, second-round pick Brian Brohm and seventh-round pick Matt Flynn, were selected in the 2008 draft, after Favre and announced his retirement and Rodgers had ascended to the starting job.

Now, with 11 total picks, including six Day 3 selections (one fourth-rounder, one fifth-rounder, two sixth-rounders and two seventh-rounders), Gutekunst intends to use at least one pick on a quarterback even though he has plenty of other needs on his roster.

“Sean did a great job in his first year. So, we’re very excited about Sean and where he’s headed,” Gutekunst said. “But I’d love to continue to bring in quarterbacks, not only for the competition but for the development of them. Because I do think it takes time. It takes time for any player, but a quarterback particularly, (to find) a comfort zone of what he’s doing where you can really see his talent come out.”

Packers quarterback depth chart

Best in class

Caleb Williams, Southern Cal

While the Packers are certain that they have their quarterback of the present and future, their NFC North rivals, the Chicago Bears, are hoping that drafting Williams with the first overall pick will finally — finally! — end their seemingly interminable run of disappointment at the game’s most important position.

Having moved on from 2021 first-round pick Justin Fields after 38 starts over three seasons, the Bears are set to cast their lot with Williams, who came to the team’s Halas Hall headquarters earlier this month for one of Chicago’s allotted 30 pre-draft visits.

Also holding the No. 9 pick, the Bears will have a chance to arm Williams with an additional playmaker, beyond veteran wide receivers D.J. Moore and Kennan Allen, tight end Cole Kmet and running back D’Andre Swift.

“They’re trying to see if I’m the right fit to be first pick as QB and possibly be the face of the franchise,” Williams said. “They’re trying to figure out if this is the guy they should invest all the time, energy, effort and money into, which is obviously important in this situation.”

Next men up

Drake Maye, North Carolina; Jayden Daniels, LSU; J.J. McCarthy, Michigan; Bo Nix, Oregon; Michael Penix Jr., Washington.

Pick to click

Sam Hartman, Notre Dame

Hartman, who turns 25 in July, played six college seasons — five at Wake Forest and one for the Irish. Much like Clifford, who spent six seasons at Penn State, Hartman offers a level of experience that’s still rare for college prospects.

At the same time, with the 25-year-old Love entering just his second season as the starter, the Packers don’t necessarily need a young, up-and-coming signal-caller who has more potential than game experience. That’s why Clifford turned out to be a good fit, and that’s what makes Hartman an intriguing option for Gutekunst.

Hartman started 57 games over those six college seasons, including 12 for Notre Dame last year. Despite less-than-ideal arm strength, his high football IQ and intangibles make him a strong candidate to be a backup at the NFL level.

“You just want to make sure that (NFL teams) know that, one, this is ball. Ball is your life. And everything you do is about football,” Hartman said at the NFL combine. “Then on top of it, (that) you’re confident. You can go into a room and be able to adapt, adjust and take command of an offense.”

History lesson

Love’s success during the second half of last season has led to MVP-level expectations for him in 2024, and if Love does play to that level, Gutekunst’s selection of him will put him in the pantheon of great Packers GMs alongside Wolf and Thompson.

But, as Gutekunst pointed out, he hasn’t used subsequent draft picks on the position the way Wolf did. Love and Clifford are the only two quarterbacks he has selected in his seven drafts as GM, as compared to Wolf, who made such picks on a near-yearly basis.

Now, Gutekunst will look to learn from that history and apply it in the present.