{"id":659332,"date":"2026-01-06T20:45:15","date_gmt":"2026-01-06T20:45:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/659332\/"},"modified":"2026-01-06T20:45:15","modified_gmt":"2026-01-06T20:45:15","slug":"clayton-tune-didnt-pass-the-test","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/659332\/","title":{"rendered":"Clayton Tune Didn\u2019t Pass the Test"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sunday\u2019s glorified<\/a> preseason game against the Minnesota Vikings was an opportunity for several young players on the Green Bay Packers\u2019 roster to showcase their talents in a regular-season atmosphere. However, third-string quarterback Clayton Tune<\/a> did not.<\/p>\n

Many of them, like edge rushers Barryn Sorrell<\/a> and Collin Oliver<\/a>, took advantage in a big way. Sorrell started the game at defensive end and was one of the lone bright spots for the Packers. He filled<\/a> the stat sheet by finishing the game with eight total tackles (five solo), one sack, one tackle for loss, a quarterback hit, three pressures, and a fumble recovery. Sorrell had a better game on Sunday than Rashan Gary<\/a> has had in several weeks \u2013 maybe even all season.<\/p>\n

Oliver made his NFL debut after missing the first 16 games with a hamstring injury and impressed by producing<\/a> four pressures on only 15 pass-rushing snaps. Two of those pressures resulted in quarterback hits, and he also had a tackle for loss when he chased down a screen pass on third down, helping the defense get off the field. Two rookies helped their case for a role on the Packers next year.<\/p>\n

However, Tune didn\u2019t make much of an argument for himself. The Packers signed him off the practice squad and gave him his second career start. The Arizona Cardinals had drafted Tune in the fifth round in 2023 and had started him in one game that season.<\/p>\n

With regular backup Malik Willis<\/a> nursing shoulder and hamstring injuries, the Packers wisely kept their starter, Jordan Love<\/a>, out of harm\u2019s way before the playoffs next week. With Willis likely signing a contract elsewhere, Tune was given a golden opportunity to take the reins in what is sure to be an open competition for next year\u2019s backup role. However, Tune failed to show much, if any promise.<\/p>\n

The third-year quarterback from Houston looked completely out of sorts running the offense. As a team, the Packers managed only three points and 121 total yards of offense and finished the game with negative passing yards. The Packers and Tune accomplished the rare feat of finishing with a minus-seven total passing yards. Tune completed only six of 11 pass attempts for 34 yards while also taking four sacks and losing 41 yards.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the first time<\/a> that\u2019s happened for Green Bay in over 50 years, dating back to a September 1976 game when Lynn Dickey<\/a> completed only five passes for 45 yards, and the Packers allowed six sacks for -80 yards. As a franchise, the Packers had only six documented games with negative passing yards before Sunday. All six came between 1965 and 1976 \u2013 a very different era for throwing the football.<\/p>\n

Green Bay was fresh off its own underwhelming third-string quarterback competition between Sean Clifford<\/a>, who was taken in the same round as Tune, and undrafted free agent Taylor Elgersma. Neither seized the chance to hang in Green Bay as the development option, so they looked outside the organization and found Tune.<\/p>\n

They likely figured that Matt LaFleur could unlock some of the talent that Tune showed in college<\/a>. Tune was a team captain for three seasons at the University of Houston. He threw for over 4,000 yards and 40 touchdowns, finished second in career touchdown passes (104) and total touchdowns responsible for (119), and third in completions. If a defensive-minded head coach in Arizona couldn\u2019t make him work, maybe a quarterback guru like LaFleur could. After all, look what he did with Willis.<\/p>\n

But after spending the entire season learning behind Love and Willis and under the tutelage of a highly respected offensive mastermind, Sunday\u2019s performance was the best Tune could put on tape when given the keys. To be fair to Tune, he was facing Brian Flores, one of the NFL\u2019s best defensive coordinators. The Vikings also played their starters while Green Bay\u2019s starters were sitting on the sideline, avoiding injury.<\/p>\n

Outside of Jayden Reed<\/a> playing a handful of snaps out of necessity, the Packers were playing with an offense comprised entirely of backups. They had wide receivers they called up from the practice squad, backup offensive linemen, and someone named Drake Dabney<\/a> at tight end. While he didn\u2019t have the proper supporting cast to do much with, it\u2019s still the NFL, and it\u2019s a results-oriented business. The results he put on the field were well below what a capable quarterback should be expected to do.<\/p>\n

On more than one occasion, Tune didn\u2019t seem to possess the feel required of an NFL quarterback. While the offensive line didn\u2019t protect him well, he didn\u2019t feel the pressure coming at all and took sacks for losses of 13 yards, seven yards, 11 yards, and 10 yards while not completing a pass over eight yards.<\/p>\n

At the same time, the Packers didn\u2019t seem to trust him much to put the ball in the air. They attempted only 11 passes on the day, opting instead for a run-heavy attack to get the game over quickly. If they thought Tune might be the answer to the question of who\u2019s going to be the backup next season, it feels like they would have given him more opportunities to let it rip.<\/p>\n

What the Packers do at backup quarterback next season might be one of the more intriguing decisions of the offseason. Willis will likely be starting elsewhere. Green Bay most likely won\u2019t want to spend big in free agency, given several key players needing new contracts and other holes to fill, such as cornerback and defensive line.<\/p>\n

Without a first-round pick, they\u2019ll need to devote more of their limited draft capital to bigger roster priorities, so they might not even address the quarterback position until the very end of the draft, if at all. Even more reason why they were hoping Tune might be a diamond in the rough \u2013 a cheap, young option they could have under team control for multiple seasons. It\u2019s still possible they sign him to a futures deal and let him compete through the offseason and training camp. However, after Sunday, would it be a shock to see them bid farewell?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sunday\u2019s glorified preseason game against the Minnesota Vikings was an opportunity for several young players on the Green…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":659333,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2072],"tags":[4659,7,41,345,2514,2513,6,428],"class_list":["post-659332","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-green-bay-packers","tag-clayton-tune","tag-football","tag-green-bay","tag-green-bay-packers","tag-greenbay","tag-greenbaypackers","tag-nfl","tag-packers"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115850112805399025","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/659332","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=659332"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/659332\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/659333"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=659332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=659332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=659332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}