Packers Sign QB Rick Mirer

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

September 2, 1998 / 1:46 AM EDT / CBS Sportsline

Quarterback Rick Mirer agreed to contract terms with the Green Bay Packers on Tuesday evening and was due to join the team at practice Wednesday.

The Packers said Mirer would be a backup to starter Brett Favre. The other backup is Doug Pedersen.

Mirer, the second overall pick in the 1993 draft, was released Sunday by the Chicago Bears.

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He had signed a $10 million, three-year contract with Chicago in February 1997 but couldn't hold the starting job and wouldn't agree on a pay cut to stay with the Bears.

Mirer starred with Seattle as a rookie before his career began a nosedive. By 1996, he was the league's lowest-rated passer. Then came the trade to the Bears.

The Packers also said center Mike Flanagan would be returning because his trade to the Carolina Panthers was canceled Tuesday after he failed a team physical.

Flanagan, 24, has had six operations since breaking his right leg in two places in his first exhibition game as a rookie in 1996. He made the Packers' regular-season roster over the weekend, but was traded Monday to Carolina for a draft choice.

The 6-foot-5, 290-pound Flanagan was Green Bay's third-round draft pick out of UCLA in 1996. Flanagan spent the 1996 season on injured reserve and the 1997 season on the physically unable to perform list. Flanagan played in all five of the Packers' exhibition games in 1998.