Michael
Pratt.
Michael
Pratt.
Tulane· 6'3"· 217 lb
"The most decorated quarterback in Tulane history was never the most talented one on the field, and the NFL asked the only question his tape could not answer: what happens when the structure disappears?"Pre-draft read
Four-year starter and trigger man in Tulane's play-action attack, Pratt is a rhythm passer who wins with timing and anticipation instead of arm talent. He operates from under center as comfortably as from the gun, drives the ball into the intermediate middle on glance and dig concepts, and ties his feet to the read: clean drop, hitch, throw.
His second calling card is situational toughness. Pratt was the Green Wave's short-yardage and goal-line runner, finishing with 28 career rushing scores on keepers and scrambles. He is a functional athlete, not a creator, and the ball floats when he has to layer it outside the numbers. The signature is command: pre-snap traffic control, protection work, and a two-minute calm that outran the arm.
Play-action-based West Coast or wide-zone offense that leans on under-center rhythm throws, boots and defined half-field reads.
Year 1: QB3 or practice-squad developmental arm who runs the scout team cleanly. Ceiling: veteran-minimum QB2 who can win a game off the bench in a structured system.
An Air Raid or empty-heavy spread that demands high-volume outside-the-numbers throws and off-schedule creation — the arm strength and pocket mobility both crack in that offense.
His value only exists inside structure; take the structure away and the traits do not carry him.
Michael Pratt 2023 Full Season Highlights | Tulane QB
AAC Offensive Player of the Year season: timing throws over the middle and goal-line keepers.
Michael Pratt 2022 Full Season Highlights | Tulane QB
The 12-2 AAC title year, including the Cotton Bowl upset of USC.
Tulane QB Michael Pratt Highlights - Senior Bowl Day 1
All-star week reps against pro competition in a compressed practice setting.
Pratt arrived at Tulane as a lightly recruited quarterback who had barely played the sport before high school and left as the most decorated passer in program history: 45 games, 9,603 yards, 90 touchdowns and the 2023 AAC Offensive Player of the Year award. He is a compact 6-foot-2, 217-pound pocket operator whose identity is process, not physics.
The 2022 season is the tape that sold him. He steered a 12-2 Green Wave team to the AAC title and the Cotton Bowl upset of USC, throwing 27 touchdowns against five interceptions while adding 10 on the ground. The 2023 encore was more efficient than explosive: 22 touchdowns, five picks, and a body that missed time in three of four seasons. The flags stayed consistent — average arm strength that shows up on out-breakers and deep overs, a habit of drifting instead of climbing when the pocket squeezes, and a structure that did much of the pre-snap work for him.
Boards had him in the fourth-to-sixth-round band as a developmental backup with starter-caliber intangibles. Green Bay took him at 245 as a low-cost arm to push the QB2 job behind Jordan Love — the exact bet a seventh-round pick should be.
- 01
Anticipatory timing
Throws the dig, glance and stick route before the break, letting rhythm and placement substitute for velocity in the intermediate middle of the field.
- 02
Pro-style operator
Four years under center in a play-action offense; handles cadence, protection identification and full-field progressions without needing a simplified menu.
- 03
Short-yardage runner
448 career carries and 28 rushing touchdowns; a genuine goal-line and third-and-short weapon who will take contact to move the sticks.
- 04
Two-minute composure
Led multiple late scoring drives, including the AAC title game MVP performance and the Cotton Bowl comeback, with heart rate under control.
- 05
Ball security in structure
Just 10 interceptions across his final two seasons on 621 attempts; understands when a concept is dead and takes the checkdown.
- 01
Average arm strength
Out-breakers to the field and deep overs lose steam; NFL corners will close throws that college defensive backs could not reach.
- 02
Pocket movement
Drifts backward instead of climbing when interior pressure arrives, which shrinks his throwing lane and turns sacks into negative-yardage plays.
- 03
Durability record
Missed time in three of his four seasons at Tulane with knee, shoulder and leg issues; the play style invites the contact that caused them.
- 04
System scaffolding
Tulane's play-action shell and defined reads did real work for him; the projection assumes he can win from empty and off-schedule, which the tape rarely asked.
— — — positional median (p50)
- 40 yd
- —s
- Vertical
- 36inp50
- Broad jump
- 114inp50
- Three-cone
- 7.20sp50
- Shuttle
- 4.23sp50
- Bench
- —rep
| Yr | Team | G | Cmp | Att | Yds | TD | Int |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | Tulane | 10 | 139 | 253 | 1806 | 20 | 8 |
| 2021 | Tulane | 11 | 189 | 328 | 2381 | 21 | 8 |
| 2022 | Tulane | 13 | 215 | 338 | 3010 | 27 | 5 |
| 2023 | Tulane | 11 | 185 | 283 | 2406 | 22 | 5 |
| Career | — | 45 | 728 | 1202 | 9603 | 90 | 26 |
CFBD season splits sum exactly to the career line (45 G, 728/1,202, 9,603 yds, 90 TD, 26 INT). Tulane/Buccaneers releases list 729/1,203 for 9,602 yards; the one-attempt discrepancy is a source difference and CFBD is kept as canonical.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Fifth-round pocket passer with pro-style reps who lived on practice squads without ever securing a QB2 job.
Undersized processor who turned command and timing into a decade-long NFL backup career with one starting run.
Accurate, tough, arm-limited college producer whose ceiling capped out at spot roster depth.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Green Bay signed him in May 2024 and gave him a real preseason look, where he played in all three games and completed 23 of 35 passes for 178 yards with a touchdown and an interception. It was not enough to unseat the veteran QB2 behind Jordan Love, and the Packers waived him at final cuts on August 27, 2024. Tampa Bay added him to the practice squad the next day, kept him all season, and signed him to a reserve/future contract in January 2025 before waiving him with an injury settlement on August 21, 2025. He never took an NFL regular-season snap. The St. Louis Battlehawks signed him to a UFL deal in January 2026, released him in February, brought him back in March and released him again on May 15.
The honest read is that the pre-draft flag was the correct one. Pratt's processing, toughness and command were real, and they are exactly the traits that get a quarterback into a building — but nothing in his physical profile forced a team to keep him when the roster math tightened. Seventh-round quarterbacks survive on either an arm a coach cannot stop thinking about or a scheme fit so specific they become the emergency answer. He had neither, and the injury settlement in Tampa cost him the practice-squad season that might have changed the outcome.
Data note: CFBD season splits sum exactly to the career line (45 G, 728/1,202, 9,603 yds, 90 TD, 26 INT). Tulane/Buccaneers releases list 729/1,203 for 9,602 yards; the one-attempt discrepancy is a source difference and CFBD is kept as canonical.