Sean
Clifford.
Sean
Clifford.
Penn St.
"Clifford was the most experienced quarterback in the class and the least physically gifted, a six-year operator whose command outran his arm — and pick 149 was the honest price for that trade."Pre-draft read
Five-year starter who ran Penn State's pro-style spread from under center and gun, and whose calling card was operational command: cadence, protection checks, ball placement on timing routes. He threw with a clean over-the-top release and got the ball out on rhythm, layering intermediate in-breakers between the hashes when the pocket held its shape.
The secondary trait was functional mobility — a 4.57 pro-day forty, enough to escape a first rusher and pull the ball down for a first down, and 15 career rushing touchdowns on designed sneaks and short-yardage keeps. Under pressure the picture changed: he sped up, dropped his eyes and forced throws into coverage. The signature was toughness, playing hurt and standing in for hits.
Timing-based West Coast or pro-style spread that lives on rhythm throws from clean pockets and asks the quarterback to run the operation rather than create outside structure.
Year 1: QB2 who can run the offense in an emergency without the install being reduced. Ceiling: long-term veteran backup and de facto extra coach in the room.
Vertical play-action offense built on boundary go balls and deep dig throws to the far hash, where his arm cannot cover the distance under pressure.
Every ounce of his value depends on how clean the pocket is when the ball comes out.
Career Highlights: Penn State QB Sean Clifford | 2023 NFL Draft
Full career reel: rhythm throws between the hashes, designed keeps and red-zone operation.
Sean Clifford 2021 Game Highlights vs Auburn
Signature 2021 performance in a hostile road environment with a clean-pocket passing script.
FTB Film Study: Simplifying the Offense for Penn State QB Sean Clifford
All-22 study of his progression reads, protection work and pressure response.
Clifford was the most experienced quarterback in the class, a six-year Penn State player who left as the program's all-time leader in wins as a starter, completions, passing yards and touchdown passes. The football identity was a timing-and-rhythm passer with real command of the operation, a quick release and the arm to threaten intermediate windows without ever being a driver of the ball outside the numbers.
The production was long rather than loud. Ten thousand-plus passing yards and 86 touchdowns came with 31 interceptions and a career completion rate just over 61 percent, and the peak seasons — 3,107 yards in 2021 and a 150.5 rating in 2022 — were a function of volume and improved decisions, not sudden arm talent. The flag was consistent: pressure shrank his game, the deep ball drifted, and Penn State's biggest games often turned on a forced throw.
He was not invited to the Combine, which he called a snub, and answered at Penn State's Pro Day with a 4.57 forty and a good throwing session. Boards had him as a late-Day-3 developmental backup. Green Bay took him at 149 as a young room's second arm behind an unproven Jordan Love.
- 01
Operational command
Six years of starts show up in cadence, protection identification and getting the offense out of bad plays before the snap without burning timeouts.
- 02
Rhythm release
Compact over-the-top delivery that gets the ball out on time, particularly on intermediate in-breakers and timing concepts between the hashes.
- 03
Functional mobility
A 4.57 pro-day forty translated to escaping the first rusher, and he converted 15 career rushing touchdowns on sneaks and short-yardage keeps.
- 04
Toughness
Repeatedly played through injuries and stood in against free rushers to finish throws, a trait his coaching staff cited across multiple seasons.
- 05
Production volume
Left Penn State as the program record holder in wins, completions, passing yards and touchdown passes, evidence of durability and staff trust.
- 01
Pressure response
Speeds up when the pocket compresses, dropping his eyes and abandoning progressions rather than climbing and resetting his platform.
- 02
Arm strength ceiling
Lacks the drive to consistently attack the far hash or the boundary deep, which lets safeties squeeze the middle of the field.
- 03
Turnover history
Thirty-one career interceptions against 86 touchdowns, and the mistakes clustered in the biggest games rather than in low-leverage snaps.
- 04
Age and runway
Entered the league at 25 after six college seasons, leaving little developmental window for a quarterback with clear physical limits.
| Yr | Team | G | Cmp | Att | Yds | TD | Int |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | Penn State | 4 | 5 | 7 | 195 | 2 | 0 |
| 2019 | Penn State | 12 | 189 | 319 | 2654 | 23 | 7 |
| 2020 | Penn State | 9 | 152 | 251 | 1883 | 16 | 9 |
| 2021 | Penn State | 13 | 261 | 428 | 3107 | 21 | 8 |
| 2022 | Penn State | 13 | 226 | 351 | 2822 | 24 | 7 |
| Career | — | 51 | 833 | 1356 | 10661 | 86 | 31 |
Season totals sum exactly to career totals verified by Penn State official records: 833 completions, 1,356 attempts, 10,661 passing yards, 86 TD, 31 INT, 1,073 rushing yards, 15 rushing TD. cfbstats archives do not go back to 2018-2019, so those two seasons come from Penn State official records cross-checked against the StatMuse ledger. cfbstats lists 169 rushing yards in 2021 (bowl-inclusive aggregation difference); the 163 figure is used because it reconciles with the official career total. Rushing attempts per season are not verified across all five years, so they are left null rather than zero-filled.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Rhythm-and-timing backup who survives on system knowledge and gets spot starts when injuries force it.
Undersized-arm operator who turned command and preparation into a long career and one legitimate starting run.
Late-round quarterback who never separates from camp arms and lives on and off practice squads.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Green Bay used him exactly as a fifth-round quarterback gets used. He rode a strong 2023 preseason to the backup job behind Jordan Love, appeared in two regular-season games as a rookie and threw one pass, a 37-yard completion, without ever taking meaningful snaps. In 2024 the Packers traded for Malik Willis and released Clifford, who returned to the practice squad and spent the whole year there. A third preseason in 2025 was his quietest — nine completions for 44 yards — and Green Bay waived him in late August. Cincinnati signed him to the practice squad that September after Joe Burrow's injury, brought him back on a futures deal for 2026, waived him at cutdowns, and re-signed him to the practice squad on September 1, 2026.
In hindsight the pick was low-cost and low-return, which is roughly what the board said it would be. Nothing about the profile projected a starter, and nothing in three pro camps changed that: the arm never grew, the pressure response never resolved, and the operational polish that made him valuable in college was not enough to separate him from cheaper young arms. He remains employed as a practice-squad quarterback, which for pick 149 is a survivable outcome rather than a failure.