Green Bay addressed the running back position in the 2024 NFL Draft in the shape of MarShawn Lloyd, selecting the former USC Trojan with the 88th overall pick and giving head coach Matt LaFleur a healthy stable of backs to utilize in 2024 and beyond.

Measurables:

5’8 ⅔”. 220 lbs. Hands - 8.75”. Arms - 30.375”. Bench - 25 reps. 40-yard dash - 4.46. 10-yard split - 1.60. Vertical - 36”. Broad - 9’10”. Did not complete 3-cone or shuttle drills.

General Info and Background:

Despite being born and raised in Delaware, Lloyd attended DeMatha Catholic High School in Maryland in order to improve his prospects of playing football at the college level. This meant a daily four-hour commute.

After a successful high school career, Lloyd committed to South Carolina, but also had interest from Kentucky, Rutgers, Michigan, Notre Dame, Ohio State, USC, Maryland, Georgia and Penn State. He was a four-star recruit coming out of high school.

Lloyd’s freshman year was curtailed by an ACL tear which he suffered just two days into fall camp. This caused him to redshirt the 2020 season, before serving as a backup in 2021, carrying the ball 64 times for 228 yards, a 3.6 average, and one touchdown.

His role increased in 2022, as he tallied 111 carries, for 573 yards, a 5.2 average, and nine touchdowns. Lloyd transferred to USC for his final college season, racking up 116 carries for 820 yards, an impressive 7.1 yard average, and nine touchdowns.

PFF ranked Lloyd as the 45th best runner in the FBS for 2023 out of 157 players with at least 100 carries, and he was an All-Pac-12 honorable mention. The running back was named to the 2022 SEC Football Community Service Team.

Lloyd attended both the Senior Bowl and the NFL Scouting Combine during the pre-draft process. He will be 23 years old during his rookie season.

Strengths:

As a runner, Lloyd has an excellent blend of explosiveness, power, speed, elusiveness and skill.

He is a very efficient mover and is able to get his foot in the ground and go. There is little wasted movement when he cuts or has to break down. Lloyd is quick to change direction and bounce runs to the outside.

There is a nice patience to Lloyd’s running style. He follows blocks well and waits for holes to open up before bursting through them.

He shows the ability to change pace on his runs, slowing down to manipulate the picture in front of him before accelerating again, and has the burst required to play that way. Lloyd is a creative runner who sees the field well and senses opportunities to turn routine runs into explosive ones.

Lloyd has the feet and vision to adjust quickly to what is in front of him. He can make defenders miss with a juke or jump cut, and reacts well to defenders in the backfield, showing the invaluable ability to transform what looks like a negative play into a positive one.

The juice and explosiveness Lloyd possesses allows him to get up to his top speed, which is impressive, quickly when given a lane. He can break down and still has the acceleration ability to bounce outside and beat defenders to the corner.

He may be under 5’9”, but Lloyd has plenty of power packed into his compact, 220 lb frame. As Packers scout Sam Seale put it: “He’s short, but he’s not little”. Lloyd is able to ride or shake off tackles, is slippery and hard to get hold of once he’s up to speed.

The former Trojan is also happy to get his head down and initiate contact, and fights for extra yards. He does not go down easy.

In the passing game, Lloyd shows the ability to catch the ball cleanly and comfortably with his hands and does not let it get into his body.

Playing with Caleb Williams, he learned the art of staying alive late in the play, as seen against UCLA when he turned a flat route upfield and got open behind the defense for a big gain.

He is able to make things happen after the catch, making defenders miss and generally having a good feel for navigating the open field. Lloyd also has experience lining up out wide in spread, 5-wide formations.

There is evidence of success in pass protection for Lloyd, giving good effort and scanning for work. His mass helps him to hold up in that phase of the game.

With less than 300 carries under his belt, there is not much wear on the tires with Lloyd, which should hopefully pay off and keep him fresh later in his career.

Weaknesses:

A consequence of Lloyd’s running style is that there can be too many negative plays. His tendency to try to bounce the ball outside lends itself to these issues.

It is mostly something you can live with, but on 3rd and 1 when he tries to bounce it and ends up losing yards rather than just plunging forward and picking up the first down, it is frustrating.

Lloyd will sometimes eschew, or not see, a fine running lane, because he is looking for something better.

He can still strengthen his lower body, as he can be tripped up by leg tackles too easily at times.

Fumbles have been a problem for Lloyd. He put the ball on the ground four times in 2023 and three times in both 2022 and 2021. This is something he will need to clean up at the next level.

While he projects to be a fine pass catcher in the NFL, Lloyd does not have much production under his belt in that regard. He had just 34 catches in his college career, and did not run particularly advanced routes.

His pass protection is up and down, there are some ugly reps on tape as well as the successful ones. The lack of height could always be an issue for him.

Besides the ACL injury, Lloyd also has a broken arm in his history, which caused him to miss his entire sophomore season in high school. He missed games in all of his four college seasons, so there will be questions about his durability.

Overall:

Lloyd’s profile somewhat resembles his new teammate Josh Jacobs, who has similar dimensions at 5’10”, 220 lbs, although Lloyd has the top end athletic traits Jacobs lacked coming out of Alabama. They are both explosive runners with natural instincts for the position.

As a rookie, Lloyd will not be forced into the starting lineup, with Jacobs and A.J. Dillon already on the roster, and can be used to provide an exciting change of pace. In time, he has all the tools to develop into a high quality, starting three-down back.