One of the more surprising moves in April’s draft was Green Bay not drafting a running back to add to their current room. While we still have the steady hand of Josh Jacobs to shoulder a monumental portion of the offense, questions still abound on what exactly the team has on the depth chart behind him. 

Chris Brooks won the contractual tug-of-war with Emmanuel Wilson, winning the grand prize of another year in Green Bay. Brooks was a Steady Eddy for Green Bay, moonlighting as a third down pass protector and pass catcher. Of his 222 total snaps last season, 157 of those came on a pass play. That’s about 71% of his total snaps, compared to 52% for Josh Jacobs and 51% for Emmanuel Wilson last season. Brooks’s role on the team is pretty well defined at this point. 

Wilson’s absence should provide, in theory, be the perfect role for Marshawn Lloyd to step into. Lloyd won’t have to carry a majority of the offense on his back (if Jacobs should suffer an unfortunate injury, I would bet the mortgage on MLF leaning on an RB by committee approach). But is replacing Wilson a 1 for 1 task, with their differing skillsets?

Last season, Wilson carried the ball 125 times, for 496 yards, three touchdowns, and one fumble. On those attempts, he averaged around 4 yards per carry, with 3.06 yards after contact (what a massive indictment of the Packers’ run blocking last season!). His attempts came mostly on zone blocking plays, with a 75-49 split and twelve 10+ runs. Wilson was mostly a North-South runner, with 39% of his rushing attempts going through the A gap in either Middle-Left or Middle-Right, and the other 60% spread out through the other six gaps. 

In receiving, Wilson was a pretty negligible contributor, with only 15 receptions for 99 yards, no touchdowns and one “explosive”. As is to be expected, his receptions came mostly behind the line of scrimmage, with ten out of fifteen. 

Can Lloyd take over Wilson’s role in the offense? Well, we just don’t know. We don’t know what the Packers want Lloyd to do, what Lloyd himself wants to do, and what the ultimate best use for Lloyd will be. Can we sniff it out? Let’s find out. 

The first place to look would be the last chunk of football that we actually got from Lloyd, his final collegiate season with the USC Trojans. That season, in 2023, he had 115 attempts for 816 yards and nine touchdowns. He was good for 7.1 yards per attempt, and 3.9 yards per attempt. Of his 115 attempts, 31% were through the “D gap” meaning outside of the tackle and/or tight end attached to the line. He still got plenty of work right down the middle however, with 26% of his attempts going up the A-gap, 42% if you include the right B-Gap. Interestingly enough, Lloyd only had 24 total rushing attempts in any other gap. He was either going straight north-south or going way outside of the OL. 

Lloyd’s receiving chops were a major selling point of his scouting process. In 2023, he caught 13 balls for 232 yards, 17.8 yards per reception. His receiving depth is much more varied than Wilson’s as well. While 50% of his receptions still came behind the line of scrimmage, he caught two out of his three 20+ yard targets, one going for 33 yards and the other for 54 yards. He also got a bit of work in the short passing game as well: about 27.8% of his targets were there.

All in all, Lloyd showed off a bit more explosiveness to his game that Wilson couldn’t match. But  it’s more than a little disingenuous to compare college and NFL stats head to head, right? Let’s find something a little more solid. What was thought about Lloyd’s future role when he was drafted? 

PFSN -  "Lloyd is a fascinating prospect with jaw-dropping flashes of excellence and anxiety-filled red flags in his draft profile. His fluidity and contributions as a receiver also work in his favor when projecting his potential to contribute on all three downs in an NFL backfield.His burst, change of direction, and lateral agility are hard not to fall in love with when he connects on his homerun attempts to bounce runs outside for explosive plays.Unfortunately, some of his top-end playmaking ability is closely tied to faulty reads, wasted motion, and indecisiveness. Throw in some issues with pass protection and a lengthy injury history, and we have a prospect with a wide range of outcomes.”

Dane Brugler - “Overall, Lloyd doesn’t have the profile of a high-volume back, but he can spark an NFL offense with his mix of patience, burst and promise as a pass catcher."  

Lance Zierlein - "Lloyd runs with slightly below-average vision but has the juice to play the role of "chunk-play slasher" and dangerous open-field pass catcher. Lloyd is a low-mileage prospect, and the scope of his role will obviously depend on scheme fit." 

33rd Team - “His route running and explosiveness could pave a path to a 3rd down role at the next level, though his size might be a limited factor in terms of pass protection.”

The general consensus on Lloyd is pretty clear. His insane athleticism, defined by acceleration and burst through space, was his calling card. His potential as a pass catcher, especially in an era where every RB needs to be part receiver, was a huge asset as well. A great 3rd down back seemed to be the floor for his career. 

Of course, the third down back role comes with a rather large part of the job description that reads “pass blocking non-negotiable”. Lloyd’s size has always been a limiting factor in that regard, and his tape at college was, in a word, horrendous. In his final year at USC he earned a 28.9 pass blocking grade from PFF, allowing 32 pressures and one sack. Of course, Lloyd may have massively improved this aspect of his game behind the scenes, but we certainly haven’t seen it. 

So according to all the signs, his best role is more of a third down catching back than a complimentary runner like WIlson. But if that’s true, and we already have a third down back who is better at pass blocking than Lloyd, where does that leave Lloyd? Assuming health, do the Packers look to move Brooks to the Wilson role, and slide Lloyd into his more natural position? 

I do think there is enough room on the roster for two third down type running backs, especially when you factor in Josh Jacobs himself, as the big bruising bellcow type who is going to be sucking up a majority of the playtime anyway. I think Lloyd and Brooks might be a bit redundant together, but the pair works well as a change of pace from Jacobs. Lloyd should shake out to be the RB2 in that situation pretty easily. 

Now, we do have to address the elephant in the room. Lloyd has a long history of injuries to overcome to become a major impact on the 2026 Packers. His injury troubles began in his freshman year at the University of South Carolina (yes, he technically played for both USCs), and as we all know, he’s never been able to stay healthy enough for Green Bay. After suffering an injured ankle in week 2 of the 2024 season, Lloyd was set for a return, which was ultimately derailed by appendicitis which ended his season. Then in 2025, a hamstring injury in the preseason landed him on the injured reserve again, with another setback coming in December that effectively ended his sophomore NFL season. 

Your heart really does break for the guy. Every interview and comment I’ve heard from or about Lloyd is about how eager he is to finally return to the football field and play for the Packers. I hope that the football gods will be kind to him for the remainder of his career, but the unfortunate truth is that history is against him. Justis Mosqueda of the Acme Packing Company did a wonderful job at looking for historical comparisons for the unfortunate beginning of Lloyd’s career. 

I hope that Lloyd can prove to be the exception. Can you imagine adding a dynamic speed threat to this offense? It kinda feels like the last infinity stone in the infinity gauntlet that is Green Bay’s offensive weapon group. For a preview of what that looks like: his 33 yard catch in last year’s preseason. There’s so much to be excited about here, and it goes so far in electrifying the Packers’ offense.