Key Packers Draftee Facing ‘Biggest Battle’ of Training Camp

Safe to say that for both the Packers and running back MarShawn Lloyd, 2024 was not quite what was expected. Green Bay had an excellent year on the ground, rushing for 2,496 yards, fifth in the NFL, and that was thanks in large part to offseason signing Josh Jacobs, who went for 1,396 yards.

Lloyd was drafted in the third round in 2024, with some suggesting that the USC standout was the best back in the class. The hope was that he would earn the backup job from the start, and form a nifty one-two punch with Jacobs. Instead, Lloyd hurt his hamstring in the preseason, hurt his ankle after Week 1 and then, as he was coming off the injured reserve, suffered a case of appendicitis and needed surgery. He also had a hip injury.

In the end, Lloyd only hit the field for one game as a rookie, and that was in Week 2. Of the Packers’ hefty rushing total in 2024, Lloyd accounted for about 0.5% of the yards gained on the ground.

Packers Deep at RB

In his place, though, the Packers got good performances from reliable scatback Emmanuel Wilson (502 yards on 103 carries) and Chris Brooks (183 yards on 36 carries). Brooks ran for 59 yards and a touchdown in the Packers’ season finale.

Coming back into 2025, then, it will not be easy for Lloyd to simply get his projected job back. Both Wilson and Brooks earned spots ahead of him on the depth chart. Still, the talent and ceiling of Lloyd is tempting, and longtime Packers insider Bill Huber of SI.com pegs Jacobs’ backup job as the top battle to watch when the Packers open training camp in eight days.

“Lloyd is talented but nothing will be handed to him. Nor should it,” Huber wrote. “Emanuel Wilson and Chris Brooks had solid seasons as last year’s backups. Wilson carried 103 times for 502 yards. Of the 46 backs who carried at least 100 times last season, he ranked seventh with 4.9 yards per carry, 14th with 3.0 yards after contact per carry and 20th with a broken tackle on 16.5 percent of his carries, according to Sports Info Solutions.”

MarShawn Lloyd Coming Off ‘Redshirt’

For the Packers, the hope is that 2024 will go down as Lloyd’s “redshirt” year. The team eased him through his time in OTAs and minicamp this spring, hoping to get him re-acclimated to the game before going full throttle in camp.

“Not rehabbing anything just, when you go through a year where you have certain things, like, you have a hamstring or you have a hip, there’s certain things you can’t just throw a person out there,” Lloyd said last month.

“You got to figure things out, you got to figure the body out, so I was up for playing and feeling 100%, but they wanted to just slowly get my way into it. I haven’t played a team sport for, it’s been a minute. Eventually, as the middle of OTAs went through, I started to get back into practices, and now I’m good.”

Whether he is good enough to win back the backup job, though, remains to be seen.