Packers: Quarterback Joe Callahan out to prove himself again

GREEN BAY — As underdog training camp narratives go, Joe Callahan’s improbable run for a spot on the Green Bay Packers’ 53-man roster last summer has to rank among the more compelling since the team’s renaissance began 25 years ago.

While there have been plenty of out-of-nowhere stories — cornerback Tramon Williams’ 2007 ascension is up there, too — and other long shots who earned their keep with unexpectedly impressive preseason performances, Callahan was supposed to be little more than a camp arm last year.

Coach Mike McCarthy had decided to limit two-time NFL MVP Aaron Rodgers’ preseason snaps, and he’d earmarked the extra exhibition playing time for young backup Brett Hundley — not some 6-foot-nothing, Division III unknown.

But when an ankle injury limited Hundley to just seven preseason passes, Callahan shined, so much so that McCarthy was telling everyone by camp’s end how Callahan had earned a spot on the team as the No. 3 quarterback. (“How the hell does he not make the team?” McCarthy asked rhetorically — and forcefully — after Callahan made it). And more than a few longtime observers couldn’t help but see some Brett Favre improv in the player’s game.

A year later, Callahan is preparing for his second NFL training camp, the Packers’ first practice is in three weeks, on July 27, with an eye on being more than just a heartwarming story.

“I still have to prove myself,” Callahan said during organized team activity practices last month. “I need to show how much I’ve improved.”

Callahan did just that during the spring quarterback school and OTA practices, and it’ll be interesting to see how good the Packers feel about Callahan if Hundley puts together an impressive enough preseason to attract trade suitors. It seems unlikely they’d turn the No. 2 job over to him if they moved Hundley — when Hundley started drawing interest during the draft in April, the Packers reportedly were planning to bring in a veteran to replace him — but after what Callahan did last year, who can bet against him?

“To know where he came from, trying just to get somebody to look at him, to see him go from there to where he finished and what he did, for me, knowing Joe personally, it was awesome,” Hundley said. “Knowing it was my playing time, it’s frustrating to a point. But it’s also intriguing to me when you can see somebody grow from where he started to where he finished. That was awesome.”

As much as the Packers liked Callahan, they bid him adieu Oct. 13 when injuries forced them to shuffle the roster. The team waived him with the intention of signing him to the practice squad when he went unclaimed, and McCarthy, who didn’t want Callahan cut to begin with, was livid when the New Orleans Saints claimed his pet project.

Callahan spent just over a week with the Saints before being released.

But then the Cleveland Browns claimed him — and kept him on their 53-man roster for more than a month before cutting him on Nov. 29.

The Packers finally got him back on the practice squad on Dec. 2, then promoted him onto the 53-man roster again on Dec. 17, keeping him there through the end of the year.

As well as Callahan played last summer — he completed 54 of 88 passes (61.4 percent) for 499 yards with three touchdowns and no interceptions (88.2 rating) — he was playing mostly on the instinct and play-making knack he showed in college at Wesley College in Dover, Del.

As a three-year starter for the Wolverines, Callahan went 33-7 and threw for 12,852 yards and 130 touchdowns, including 5,068 yards and 55 touchdowns in 2015, when he won the Gagliardi Trophy, the Division III equivalent of the Heisman Trophy.

Scrambling and making something out of nothing was a key part of Callahan’s college production, and the Packers coaches like that aspect of his game.

But they have stressed that the next step is for him to make more plays while doing so within the framework of the offense.

“That’s a big part of it. Second year, you can go through any read in the offense and he’ll spit the read right out to you. So he’s picking it up,” quarterbacks coach Alex Van Pelt said. “He just has to continue to do what he’s doing.

“He’s growing. His footwork has gotten a lot better, his understanding of the offense has gotten better in his second year. Just continue to do that and then show it in the preseason when he gets to play.”