GREEN BAY, Wis. -- Green Bay Packers backup quarterback Scott Tolzien can pick up his playbook now.
Last month at the NFL scouting combine, Packers coach Mike McCarthy said Tolzien was so eager to begin preparations for the 2015 season that Tolzien asked the team's video department for his team-issued iPad, which contains the playbook.
McCarthy's response: "Tell him to sign his contract."
Tolzien can do that now. He agreed to return to the Packers for a one-year deal, a league source confirmed. Milwaukee TV station WTMJ and PackerReport.com reported the contract could be worth up to $1.35 million. Tolzien made $645,000 last season as part of the two-year deal he signed in 2013 when he was promoted from the practice squad after Aaron Rodgers' collarbone injury.
The 27-year-old Tolzien spent last season as the No. 3 quarterback behind Rodgers and Matt Flynn. He did not play a single snap and was active for only three games -- the regular-season finale and both playoff games -- after Rodgers' late-season calf injury. In 2013, Tolzien made two starts while Rodgers was out with a broken collarbone but gave way to Flynn after throwing one touchdown and five interceptions.
Tolzien outplayed Flynn in the preseason last summer, but the Packers stuck with Flynn as the No. 2 in large part because of his experience in their system as the top backup from 2008-11 and then again in 2013.
Flynn is scheduled to become a free agent on Tuesday. He returned to the Packers last year on a one-year, $1.068 million deal. Given the financial commitment the Packers have made to Tolzien, they may no longer be interested in re-signing Flynn, although Rodgers said after the season he hopes both of his backups return.
However, the Packers also appear to be interested in drafting and developing a quarterback, and given that there's probably little market for Flynn, who will turn 30 in June, they could wait to re-sign him until after they see what happens in the draft. The Packers have taken only one quarterback (B.J. Coleman, a seventh-round pick in 2012) in the previous six drafts.
"It's really two different questions," McCarthy said at the combine. "Scott and Matt obviously fit in our room and do a very good job of what they're asked. I think Scott is definitely an ascending player. I still think he has more growth in front of him. Then, the other part of it is the quarterback position. I don't think you ever pass on a quarterback. It's the most important position in the game. If you have one at a value that you're comfortable and he's in a position to pick him, I think you pick him."