Sorry Greg! It would take more than a 5th round pick for me to want to give up the insurance a quality back-up QB provides. Chances are if they got a 4th or a pick swap of maybe a 3rd for a 5th they would be using that pick on a QB to replace Willis and there's no guarantee that pick would work out. The Packers have big aspirations for 2025. Not having a quality back-up who could win you a couple of games if Love sustained an injury like he did this year could cost you a chance at the playoffs.

Willis is too valuable as insurance to be traded right now--unless an offer comes that you can't resist, which would be no less than a third-rounder. We've also seen him take care of the football and make some pinpoint throws, something we'd like to see a little more out of our starter at times. He can also be used creatively if MLF chooses to do so. There's still a lot of untapped potential here.

The Packers already have a lot to figure out in the off-season, and the backup QB position doesn't need to be added to the list right now. Worry about it later.

I think we have a great situation with Willis as our backup. We should trade him away so that we wouldn't have a great situation? That just doesn't make sense to me.

Even if you could get a first round pick for the, guy, you have to factor in that some #1s aren't as impactful as a backup QB who can win games for you. I think you don't go making holes in your roster that you don't have to.

Right now, out of the 21 offensive guys we'll dress out for our opener next year, we need to replace a WR and an OL, at a minimum. Two holes can be managed in the draft and FA, even three or four. You also have to factor in the defense needs two CBs, a replacement for Slaton, and replacements for Mcduffie and others. Pretty soon we need 10 new guys added to the youngest team in the league.

So, IMO, you try to not create more holes. That's what trading away Willis would do. Why? Creating a hole to help fill a hole someplace else?

I say keep him unless you get a 2nd or a 1st and yes I know that will not happen. He is an experienced QB that is on his rookie contract. He can win at least half ogf the games he starts. He also provides the opportunity to come in on special situations where he might be better than Love.

Keep him because we might need him.

Not only keep him, extend him if can be convinced to.

You keep him for one year and you get a compensatory pick if he signs a decent contract with another team afterwards.
Win win.

"We may be able to get the next Malik Willis in the late rounds or even sign a veteran QB to a 1-2 year deal." It's clearly not that easy. Willis was a 3rd round pick for TEN, and GB rarely drafts backup QBs that high.

And GB doesn't often sign veteran QBs, preferring to draft their backups. But until Willis, the backups have been pretty awful other than Love and Matt Flynn:

Tim Boyle
Kurt Benkert
DeShone Kizer
Brett Hundley
Joe Callahan
Scott Tolzien

GB finally found a good backup that can run, throw, take care of the ball, and win some games. I don't think you give that up for a 5th rounder.

Willis is not going to stay here as a backup. He will at least want a chance to compete after next year. So from now on he’s a cheap rental.

This is not a good QB class. Willis having shown the mental aspects he had while here, along with the previously known arm talent is potentially a legitimate option to start for several teams. He and Darnold (possibly) are the best younger QBs potentially available to a team that needs one. If any GM agrees, it is possible that we get an offer for Willis that we can not refuse.

To be clear a 5th rounder is not even close to enough to prize him free. We’d need at least a second and a later pick (to replace him directly or by trade) before I’d see any justification in letting him go and lessen our depth in 2025. If we do keep him then we are looking at a comp pick in 2027. The best that could be is a 3rd, which is typically valued in this year’s draft terms as 5th due to the 2 year delay.

Unusually, I do not think that is impossible for him despite how cheaply we got him. If he’s seen as a best available bet by a team, that’s too valuable to worry about how we got him.

I think the right price would have to be pretty high. It's no stretch to say that without Willis, we would not have been in the playoffs at all. I figure he's going to show more development in the preseason and have another moment or two during the real games. Maybe he shows enough that someone makes a big offer next season or someone signs him to an inflated contract after the season and we get a nice compensatory pick.

Malik Willis has been a blessing and has offered a sense of security-I would say a polite 'no-thank you' to potential suitors. Too much need to focus on DL/OL/CB/and coaches.

Off-topic but important:
According to Ian Rapoport the Packers have interviewed Tampa Bay Buccaneers defensive line coach Kacy Rodgers. They were also interested in Jet's Aaron Whitecotton?

They not only would, THEY SHOULD.

The packers traded Aaron Brooks to NO.

Not only that- They traded Matt Hassleback on
March 2, 2001. Along with their first draft pick (17th overall),
to the Seahawks for their first (10th overall)
and third-round draft picks (72nd overall).

Don't let a trade go out the Window.

A guy who can win games for you when your QB is hurt is invaluable.

I would offer him an extension as a reward for helping us win 2 games. Then I would continue to develop him, showcase him in the pre-season, use his skillset in some of our game plans and hope he eventually turns into a 1st round pick.

Think about talking to the Steelers. Trade for one of their "backups" and a receiver, defender or a pick. The Steelers are in a much worse place right now and will have to be in the market. It doesn't always have to be about draft picks.

Scooter Tolzien was the best back up ever!!!

Yeh, indeed, what is Malik Willis worth to the Packers?

Oh man, surely better, much better, than a fifth rounder. I'm thinking a three, maybe even a two. I'm not even thinking of trading Malik, for that matter. The guy is too promising, too promising certainly not to be relegated to a backup quarterback position. But what to do with him, right?

The Packers are stuck with Love. They made a bad bet this past summer signing Love to a monstrous four year contract worth 55 million dollars a year. Like that last monstrous contract that they signed with Aaron Rodgers.

Better the Packers should trade Love than Malik. But the Packers won't do that. They won't admit that they made a 55 million dollar a year mistake.

So, again, what do the Packers do with Malik? How do they value him?

Why think of Willis as a backup? Is it because Gutekunst overpaid Love too soon? I say let those two duel it out in training camp for the starting job. I want the Packers to have the best starting quarterback available and only a training camp equal opportunity tryout can determine that. Did Love regress or is his ceiling lower than was projected? Did a light come on for Willis under LaFleur? Let the Packers give Willis an honest evaluation opportunity and not just continue with Love unopposed.

1-2 round pick - trade him (unlikely to happen)
3rd - check out your options
4th and later - to would be hard to find someone gving that much quality (not impossible, but it's a lottery), so not

Finally have QUALITY backup qb after how many years of nothing? And they’d entertain the idea of trading? That would make no sense.

In 2021 the Jets traded Darnold to the Panthers for a 2021 R6 and 2022 R2 & R4. Willis showed more in his few starts in 2024 than Darnold showed in 3 season with the Jets. To me the Darnold trade is a good starting point for Willis compensation.

Seriously consider get Willis going and see what you can get for Love. No doubt Love regressed hopefully it was injuries because no doubt he has hung out his shingle GB for the forseeable future it appears.

I'm a little salty Love was rushed back too soon. Willis was not making stupid mistakes and was taking what teams were giving them. Most of the games were not very good teams anyway. This would have allowed Love to heal and showcase Willis and allow ML to open up the offense a bit more to Willis for exactly this possibility. From what I see it would be moronic to take anything less than a 2nd RD pick for him an honestly I wouldn't mind benching Love and put Willis in to see if there really is fire in his belly for football. When he said Basketball was his favorite.....I was like UUUOOOHHH.

move Willis? hell move Love for anyone who would assume his contract. Willis showed he could make throws Love routinely misses. he can make plays with his legs. the guy should be competing for starter not for backup

Willis won two games as starter, and put GB in perfect position to beat Chicago the final game. Until Hafley inexplicably gave them a free 20 yard completion. So IMO he potentially went 3-0 as the starting QB. That's great for a "backup" qb.

But I just don't think any GM is going to give a high pick for a player who was just acquired for a 7th round pick. Their fans would tar and feather the GM.

The only way I'd see him going somewhere else is a player-for-player deal. If somebody has, say, a pass rusher that Gutekunst thinks has potential to be a real upgrade, I could see that deal happening. Nobody is going to give up a "big name" player, but maybe Gute has his eyes on someone he really likes who happens to be behind another real good player, or who isn't used correctly. I think that was Zadarius Smith's situation before GB signed him as a free agent. He played, but he wasn't a big star.

I know I wouldn't give up Willis unless I knew I was getting someone who could help me win a lot of games.

Be patient, I like what someone posted above about an early season situation where somebody else's starter gets hurt. His value goes up depending on the desperation of the trade partner.

This all comes down to a compensatory pick analysis. The Pack can get the benefit of one more year of Willis plus set themselves up for a potentially high compensatory pick. How? For starters, if Willis continues to improve and prove out his ability to be a starter, another team is going to sign him to a big contract in 2026. As a compensatory free agent, that increases his impact to the pick calculation. Second, the Packers are unlikely to sign many other compensatory free agents in 2026 because they are going to have to sign and extend a very good 2022 draft class and save money to extend a very good 2023 draft class. During those two years, we will likely not be signing many CFAs with a more mature team full of our own. That means that Willis and anyone else we let walk after this year, will only lead to more and better compensatory picks which will allow Gutey to reload the roster with cheaper talent to offset the larger contracts we will have at that time. Therefore, it will make sense to keep Willis unless we get an offer of a 3rd round pick or better.

For the love of God, please keep him. If we are really that close to contending for a Super Bowl, why in the world would you trade him? Even if you got a #1 for him, there is no guarantee that a #1 will ever be what Willis has proven to be. Take the next step with Willis. Incorporate him into some RPO plays like the Saints did with their backup QB Taysom Hill Let's max this kid out for a more potent offense, and as backup QB who has proven he can win games for you.

Hmm, according to my math: trade an ascending and known commodity Willis for a 6th rounder, and gamble late in the draft to find a replacement QB in the 5th or 6th round equals 5 degrees below zero, exactly my thermometer reading this morning. See how logical this is?

No. IN WHAT SANE WORLD would a conscious & sentient NFL GM get rid of, waste, squander, sell down the river a functioning NFL quarterback? A qb proven capable, on the field, of LEADING the Packers to victory, taking command, running when he needs to, and passing within the Pack Offense. A quarterback capable of stepping in and playing to win without ANY dropoff in play. There is no pile of money, no truckoad of draft picks that can magically replace a high-functioning backup quarterback capable of going in COLD and getting it done. NFL franchises & the Packers spend years and years and years, and DOZENS of draft picks hoping to uncover just an average, stable, unremarkable backup quarterback, let alone a really good and LEGIT but undiscovered NFL QB, without much luck. Having FINALLY FOUND a suitable NFL qb who can just step in and play flawlessly

WHY

WHY would we throw all that away. Why. After all that work trying to find Willis, why get rid of him scant weeks after the stupendous and undeserved realization you've got a Live One on your hands. Would you throw Favre overboard b/c you've already got Majik? No? Would you trade Rodgers even though he's proven decent at the position just because you've already got Favre? No? What are you doing trying to dump Malik Willis then? It's incoherent.

You trade the Ty Detmers; you PLAY the Mark Brunells. Favre, Rodgers, Love have all played injured and lost games because of it, proving that level of stupidity never works. Packers' injury rate jumped to epidemic levels last game, it's unavoidable and putting Malik Willis on the field to win games & get Jordan Love healthy as needed is crucial to winning another real title run. Throwing away what you've been trying to find for years, year-in year-out, is at best an impulsive reflex that's incoherent in relation to Packers' intent to build a Lombardi Trophy-worthy roster, dumping Malik Willis for no reason undercuts that goal. Rolling with Michael Pratt or Sean Clifford is not an option. There is no way in hell Gute or LaFleur or Murphy will take the 6 magic beans when Willis is the proven dairy cow who delivers. PAY him. Pay him well. And laugh and laugh at rival GMs drafting QBs #1 and *never developing them* as though buying & selling over-hyped players at the drop of a hat has ever built a winning roster. Willis has proven his mettle in spades, so PAY him and can the self-indulgence.

Malik Willis will not be traded. Not even when the Tundra freezes over.

One of the brightest spots of all this season was the absurd (7th Round) STEAL of signing Malik Willis!

The guy can run, pass, and deal with the pressure of coming into a heated substitute situation.

Sure the guy played only 2 1/2 games… but there is NO doubt that he outplayed Love in each moment he was on the field.

Teams would be salivating in a drool bucket to get this guy for a fifth round pick!!!

Talking heads pumped up MLF for a “brilliant game plan!!!

BS…. Gutekunst and management knocked this deal out of the park!!!

Keep the guy is my vote!

A good backup QB is a rarity. And a starting QB who can stay healthy for an entire season is hard to find as well. So why trade a valuable guy like that for a 5 round pick as Greg suggests,?

I remember a good corner we had recently who was traded for a 5th round pick? How did that work out for us? How many fans would still want Rasul around today given our CB room? All of us?

Let's us not forget where we could have been after Love went down in game 1? We do not know how durable Love is going to be long term. Having a good backup QB gives the team a reasonable chance of winning if Love goes down for an extended period of time.

Bottom line - We are NOT sellers at this point, like we thought we were with Rasul a year ago. To trade a promising QB for a 5th Rd pick is not going to strengthen our team now.

Greg one of the things teams are learning is with the 17 game schedule, if you consider yourself a contender, you need a backup QB who can run your team for 2 or 3 games. While there are certainly exceptions, most starters won't play the whole season without some kind of injury. So, the only way they trade him is if they saw some serious development in Sean Clifford (we didn't get to see him at all during the season) or they sign a veteran whom they really like. I don't think they're going to trade Willis for a 4th or 5th just to burn a 5th on his successor. Of course, you have the issue that you WILL loose him in '26, but unless you can sign a very capable backup on the free agent market, you have to hang on to him.

The other reason, unfortunately, is that I have this nagging feeling that Love might not be the guy. I hate saying it. Something in the arm, something in the spirit, something in the mental processing, was off. I think we all saw it and no one can really put a finger on it. If, midway through next season, we see the same thing, I think the conversation about Willis will be entirely different. I don't know if you can pay him enough to extend him for one year and forgo the chance to compete for a job somewhere else in '26, but I'd certainly give it a shot.

Why??? Decent/Good backup QB’S don’t grow on trees. If the Packers signed a veteran (not likely) and used a day 3 pick, maybe. BUT…Why create another hole when you need a cover corner and pass rusher on D and a #1 WR and maybe an RB to make a thunder and lightning tandem with JJ!!! Sure let’s fill some holes and create others??? Makes sense?!?!?!? NOT!!!!!!

Also the Packers need to replace the QB coach. Let’s hope they get a good one; it doesn’t matter if it’s from inside or outside the current coaching staff.

My 'price' for Willis would be a 1st-round pick swap that lets is move up high enough to get a top CB (Will Johnson, maybe), Edge (Andre Carter, e.g.), DT (Graham maybe) or WR (McMillian).
Love has not demonstrated Favre's durability, and Willis saved 3 games in 2024, so why let him go cheap?

If someone offered a 3rd for Willis I would say yes. A 4th+, maybe. Anything less, I would pass.

This won't be popular on here but have an open competition this spring in GB. Watching both qbs play this year has shown the Willis's upside might be higher than Loves. Seems to motivate the team more and his passes though limited were much more where they are suppose to be over Loves who seldom put's the ball where it's suppose to be. Just because you signed Love to a huge contract shouldn't make a difference and might get a fire lit under him also.