Backups for Brett

When you look upon the legendary career of Brett Favre, it's simply remarkable how many quarterbacks played behind him throughout his 18 year NFL career. Some were grizzled veterans in the twilight of their careers, others were rookies just trying to break in to the NFL. Let's take a look back at the memorable and not so memorable quarterbacks that got paid to sit on the bench and watch Brett play.

Don Majkowski

Some people might forget that after Brett took over for the Majik Man in '92, that good ol' #7 didn't exactly vaporize off the team, but served as Brett's backup.

Mark Brunell

After starting his career briefly with the Pack, Mark Brunell is probably best known for his successes with the Jacksonville Jaguars, being on the original Jaguar roster. In only a few games into the season, Brunell replaced Steve Beuerlein as the starter, and ended up playing 9 seasons with the Jaguars, and spent a three year stint with the Redskins, and is currently the backup to Drew Brees on the Saints.

Ty Detmer

1990 Heisman Trophy winner Ty Detmer backed up Brett from '92-'95, having his most professional success stepping in for Rodney Peete in '96

TJ Rubley

TJ Rubley, who remarkably started 7 games for the Rams back in 1993, still strikes angst in the hearts of Packers fans everywhere thanks to his inability to be OK with taking orders from his head coach while being a 3rd string quarterback. While playing the Vikings, instead of carrying out the called QB sneak on 3rd and 1, good ol' TJ decided to call an audible, throwing an interception, leading to a Packer loss. TJ didn't receive paychecks from the Packers much longer after that.

Aaron Brooks

Aaron Brooks spent his rookie year with Green Bay before finding some success with the Saints, helping lead the Saints to the playoffs in the 2000 season, along with a noteworthy 2003 campaign in which the Saints narrowly missed the playoffs. He ended his career with the Raiders and is currently working as a land developer. Mike and Marcus Vick are cousins of his.

Matt Hasselbeck

Matt Hasselbeck is best known for being the Pro Bowl QB for the Seahawks, but he got his start in Green Bay. A 6th round draft pick back in 1998, the Packers traded him to improve their draft stock in 2001, moving from 17th to 10th in round one, and gaining 3rd round picks, giving away 7th round picks. Packer fans may remember him most for his cocky antics during the playoffs in 2004, when the Seahawks and Packers headed into overtime and Matt announced when the Seahawks won the flip "We want the ball we're gonna score." Hasselbeck proceeded to throw an interception to Al Harris, who sprinted into the end zone to give the game to the Pack.

Doug Pederson

Doug spent two stints with the Packers, totaling 7 seasons. In between stints, Pederson spent time starting a few games for the Eagles in '99 and the Browns in '00. Packer fans will remember him as being as being a dependable backup to Brett who often wore a headset, performing the role of an unofficial quarterbacks coach.

Kurt Warner

Although not technically a backup to Brett Favre on any official roster, Kurt spent time in Packers training camp directly out of college in 1994, only to get cut.

Jim McMahon

Jim McMahon, one of the Super Bowl Shufflers of the '85 Bears, spent two years with the Packers. In the second year, he earned a Super Bowl ring essentially by sitting back, chilling, and being generally awesome.

Steve Bono

Steve Bono guided the Chiefs to a 13-3 record in '95, then suffered a meteoric decline in relevance, become Brett's backup for the '97 season.

Ingle Martin

Ingle was heavily recruited out of high school, and played at Florida before suffering a concussion and getting replaced by then freshman Chris Leak. Ingle transferred to 1-AA Furman where he was generally awesome. The kid could punt, too! He's currently a free agent. Don't give up the dream!!!

Craig Nall

Packers fans might remember Craig as a stud in NFL-Europe around '03. Another current free agent, he had zip on his passes that earned him all-time stats of 5 touchdowns, 0 interceptions and a QB rating of 123.8. Someone pick this guy up!

JT O'Sullivan

JT Spent time essentially taking knees for the Pack in 2004. Most recently folks might remember him for being a mediocre starting QB for the 49ers, before they discovered that Shaun Hill was good. Good luck with the Bengals, JT!

Danny Wuerffel

Danny won the Heisman in '96 and won a National Championship. He played with the Pack in 2000 and also was MVP of the World Bowl in 2000. He never quite broke into a good stride at the top professional level of NFL play, though. Nevertheless, he has been a champion in the world of charity work.

Eric Crouch

Another unofficial backup, 2001 Heisman Trophy winner Eric Crouch joined the Pack in 2003, retired due to his small chance to become a backup to Brett and unretired and switched positions to safety in 2004. The safety experiment did not work, with Crouch being released in 2004.

Tim Couch

The former #1 overall pick, Tim Couch attempted to re-ignite his career by signing with the Packers in 2004 with much fanfare, some people believing him to the possibly be the "heir apparent" to the starting QB job after Brett left. He played very poorly during pre-season games and was cut before the regular season even began. Perhaps the poor performances can be linked to a later revealed rotator cuff injury.

Aaron Rodgers

Current starting QB for the Green Bay Packers, Aaron Rodgers started his career as backup to Brett. Although Rodgers looked quite laughable in many of his appearances before Brett left the Pack, Rodgers' best backup performance was in 2007, when Rodgers stepped in for an injured Favre against the Cowboys. Rodgers led the Packers to cut their deficit from 17 to 3 in a losing effort. Rodgers seems to have grown significantly as a starting QB in the NFL, leading the Packers to sign him to a contract extension during the past season.