Kyle McCord Is Making Green Bay's Backup QB Job a Real Fight With Tyrod Taylor
McCord ranks sixth in the NFL this preseason with 220 passing yards while Taylor has managed just 38. The Packers' No. 2 job is suddenly wide open.
Deep stash only — he's fighting for a job behind a healthy Jordan Love.
- McCord: 24-of-35, 220 yds, 6th in NFL this preseason
- Taylor: 8-of-16, 38 yds over 34 snaps
- McCord ran 3 two-minute drills, two vs Denver
- Taylor's $1.3M base guarantees if he makes Week 1 roster
- Cutting Taylor now costs GB $700K vs $2.9M cap hit
Green Bay's backup quarterback plan looked settled two weeks ago. It doesn't anymore. Rookie Kyle McCord — a 2025 draft pick who spent last year on Philadelphia's practice squad — has gone 24-of-35 (69 percent) for 220 yards this preseason, sixth-most in the NFL, while veteran Tyrod Taylor has managed just 8-of-16 for 38 yards across 34 snaps. That's a 6.3-to-2.4 yards-per-attempt gap, and it's not subtle.
The context matters here. Taylor signed a one-year, $2.5 million deal with another $2.5 million in mostly unlikely incentives, and there's a real cap wrinkle behind it. Cutting him now would cost Green Bay $700,000 against the cap versus his current $2.9 million hit. But if he makes the Week 1 roster as a vested veteran, his $1.3 million base salary locks in fully guaranteed — money the Packers eat whether or not they move on later.
That's why McCord's preseason has real stakes. He's orchestrated three two-minute drills at the end of first halves over two games, including two in a single outing against Denver. He's not throwing highlight-reel darts, but he's hitting out routes on time, moving the chains and showing composure in the pocket. Taylor, meanwhile, has a long completion of seven yards and a stack of floating incompletions against Pittsburgh and Denver.
Passing game coordinator Jason Vrable — who coached Taylor back in Buffalo — insisted the 37-year-old still has his old arm strength. After the tape from Denver, that's a tough sell. The third-team offense has simply moved the ball better through the air than the second unit.
What Happens Next
Head coach Matt LaFleur said the starters will get their work in this week's joint practice against Arizona, coached by his younger brother, while the preseason finale will mostly be a backup audition. So we'll get one more clean look at both McCord and Taylor before the roster gets trimmed. A week ago McCord was still fighting for the third QB spot behind Kyron Drones. Now he might leapfrog Taylor entirely.
For fantasy purposes, none of this changes your draft board unless something happens to Jordan Love. Love finished 2025 as our QB14 (No. 31 overall) with 247 PPR points over 15 games — 3,381 passing yards, 23 touchdowns and zero interceptions — though his last five games ran 2.5 fantasy points below his season average. That said, whoever wins this job matters if Love goes down: McCord's arrow is pointing up, while Taylor's 62 PPR points and 5-to-5 TD-to-INT split over six 2025 games (as our QB45) is uninspiring. Keep McCord on your deep-stash radar in superflex leagues and move on — until Love's health forces the issue, neither is a fantasy asset.
