Outlook for Packers Rookie Is a Roller-Coaster Ride

The Green Bay Packers are a fascinating organization with an unusually young team. Green Bay has the core of the team contractually locked up for years, and up-and-coming quarterback Jordan Love showed flashes of greatness in his first year as a starter. One position group has undergone significant changes in the offseason.

Outlook for Packers Rookie Is a Roller Coaster Ride

General manager Brian Gutekunst moved on from longtime franchise runner Aaron Jones after seven seasons with the club. The 2017 fifth-rounder rushed for almost 6,000 yards in his time in Wisconsin, adding another 2,076 as a receiver. The versatile back found paydirt 64 times.

But he is now history for the Packers and moved on to the purple rivals, becoming Minnesota’s new RB1. The Packers want to hand their RB1 title at some point in a few years to rookie MarShawn Lloyd, who Gutekunst drafted with the 88th overall pick out of USC.

Lloyd entered a complicated running back room, as 2022 rushing leader Josh Jacobs will surely be the bell-cow runner, leaving only a few carries for his teammates. He logged over 200 carries in each of his five seasons in the NFL, and his four-year $48 million contract will surely guarantee a bunch of touches in the upcoming season.

The Packers also employ 2020 second-rounder A.J. Dillon after re-signing the large RB in free agency and sophomore Emmanuel Wilson, who is a hidden gem according to many fans.

Lloyd opened the preseason buried on the depth chart. In the first contest against the Cleveland Browns, Lloyd rushed once for eight yards and caught one pass for one yard before exiting the game with a hamstring injury. That injury has lingered to this point, and folks wondered if he would start the season on IR, knocking him out of at least the first four games of the season ‒ that would almost be a death sentence for his 2024 outlook, considering the strong competition.

Things changed drastically on Tuesday when the teams had to get under the 53-man player limit according to NFL rules. Lloyd avoided IR, but his teammate Dillon was placed on season-ending IR with a neck injury.

Suddenly, Lloyd, who is expected to be ready at some point in September, is in the mix to receive more playing time than expected in his debut season. Of course, in order to get a significant workload, Jacobs would have to get hurt, but it is still a massive boost for his first season compared to a few days ago.

The 23-year-old was a five-star recruit, playing his high school ball in Maryland. He committed to South Carolina, but a torn ACL in 2020 derailed his first season. He registered 228 rushing yards in 2021 and 573 yards and nine touchdowns as the starter in 2022. Unfortunately, injuries have continued to bother him, limiting him to only nine games in that season.

Following the 2022 campaign, Lloyd transferred to USC, where he started two of the 11 games he appeared in. He rushed for 820 yards and nine touchdowns, on an electric average of 7.1 yards per carry.

At 5-9 and 220 lbs, Lloyd ran a 4.46 40-yard dash. His elusiveness and quickness are off the charts despite the beefy weight. He has high-end speed, vision, instincts, and the ability to be a receiver out of the backfield to become one of the elite runners in the NFL.

However, his injury concerns flare up every season, and his fumble problems (1o in less than 300 carries) could also lead to a short career. The Packers took a risk drafting him in the third round, but that risk has the potential to pay off big-time.

Lloyd’s usage rate depends on the health of his teammate and his own health, but to this point, he has avoided major disaster and received some help from Dillon’s unfortunate IR stint.

Editor’s Note: Information from Sports Reference CFB helped with this article.

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Janik Eckardt is a football fan who was drawn to the sport by Adrian Peterson’s excellence. He is a walking soccer encyclopedia, loves watching sitcoms, and has an affinity for Classic rock. His active Twitter page can be found here. His work can be found on PurplePTSD, VikingsTerritory, and DraftHuddle.