The Green Bay Packers have a new wide receiver, and they didn’t get him in this year’s NFL Draft. It’s Alex McGough, who won the USFL Most Valuable Player Award for the 2023 season and helped the Birmingham Stallions win the USFL championship in 2022 and 2023 as a quarterback.

McGough spent the 2023 NFL season on the Packers’ practice squad as a quarterback. But while addressing reporters at Green Bay’s rookie minicamp on Friday, coach Matt LaFleur said the Packers plan to give McGough an opportunity at wide receiver.

“He’s a really athletic guy,” LaFleur said. “One thing I know you didn’t see last year is he spent a lot of time on the practice squad or on the scout team running receiver routes. And he did such a great job. We feel like he’s just such a talented athlete, why not give him a chance there?

“He’s a smart guy, works his tail off. I think he can definitely contribute on (special teams) as well, so we felt like that might be his chance here.”

McGough started both his seasons with the Stallions as the backup to quarterback J’Mar Smith. In the 2022 USFL Championship Game, McGough threw a fourth-quarter touchdown pass as Birmingham defeated the Philadelphia Stars 33-30.

In 2023, Smith got injured in the opening game, and McGough went on to pass for 2,105 yards and 20 touchdowns and run for 403 yards and five touchdowns in the regular season. In the 2023 USFL Championship Game, McGough threw four touchdown passes as the Stallions defeated the Pittsburgh Maulers 28-12 for their second straight title.

That led to a contract with Green Bay.

McGough is now listed as a wide receiver on the Packers’ roster, joining Romeo Doubs, former Park Crossing High School standout Grant DuBose, Malik Heath, Bo Melton, Thyrick Pitts, Jayden Reed, Samori Toure, Christian Watson and Dontayvion Wicks at that position.

Doubs, Melton, Reed, Toure, Watson and Wicks caught passes for Green Bay last season, led by Reed’s 64 receptions for 793 yards and eight touchdowns.

The Packers did not have a wide receiver among their 11 selections in the 2024 NFL Draft. They did pick Tulane quarterback Michael Pratt in the seventh round, and he joined starter Jordan Love and backup Sean Clifford as the QBs on Green Bay’s roster.

Before coming to Birmingham, McGough was a seventh-round selection of the Seattle Seahawks in the 2018 NFL Draft. He also has appeared on the rosters of the Jacksonville Jaguars and Houston Texans, but he has not played in an NFL regular-season game.

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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.