The Green Bay Packers were excited when they selected running back MarShawn Lloyd in the third round of the 2024 NFL Draft. The USC alum was considered one of the top running backs in that draft and his elusiveness and breakaway speed made him a potentially dangerous change-of-pace back for the team. Unfortunately, the Packers have barely seen what Lloyd can do during an actual game situation. In two seasons with the Packers, assorted injuries have limited Lloyd to just one regular season game. But the team is hoping that this will be the year they finally get some contributions from Lloyd on the football field.
The Packers were thrilled when they selected Lloyd. He averaged 7.1 yards per carry in his final collegiate season. Over his final two years in college, he forced 111 missed tackles on 259 total touches according to Pro Football Focus.
GM Brian Gutekunst gushed about Lloyd shortly after he selected him. “He’s a 220-pound man. He’s packed in a tighter frame but like his ability to make people miss, he’s got a little juice to him and, again, he’s 220 pounds, he breaks tackles,” Gutekunst said. “We think his best football’s ahead of him.”
The Packers have seen only glimpses of what Lloyd can do. He played in one regular season game as a rookie, a Week 2 contest against the Colts. He carried six times for 15 yards and caught one pass for three yards before missing the rest of the season due to injuries.
In 2025, Lloyd suffered a groin injury early in training camp. He recovered in time to play in one preseason game, had some memorable moments in that game and then suffered a hamstring injury that landed him back on injured reserve. Lloyd seemed ready to return later in the season and the team opened up his practice window only to see him again be shelved again and miss the rest of the season.
The Packers running back room lost backup running back Emanuel Wilson who signed with the Seahawks as a free agent earlier this offseason. Starter Josh Jacobs is back, but he is coming off a season full of nagging injuries that reduced his productivity by 400 yards as compared to the previous year. The Packers did re-sign third running back Chris Brooks. While Brooks is a good blocker and a reliable runner and receiver, he does not provide the Packers with a dynamic change of pace to Jacobs and is unproven as an RB2.
This week, the Packers assistant coaches addressed the media and running backs coach Ben Sirmans discussed Lloyd’s progress and again touted his hope that Lloyd will be able to contribute to the Green Bay offense this season.
“He did something that he hasn’t done before working with a [training] group,” Sirmans told reporters, “which was his first time in the offseason working with a group. So, I think that gave him a lot of confidence. He talked about how much stronger he is just in the lower half of his body, stronger than he’s ever been. So, with all those things giving him confidence, and he’s got a regimen that he does before we even go out to practice. So, we’re very optimistic, but we’ve all been optimistic before. So, we’ve just got to wait and see what’s going to happen, but he feels confident, I feel confident that he’s finally gotten to the point where he can be in there and be ready to play a full season.”
Obviously, the addition of a healthy and productive Lloyd would give the Packers a different type of weapon in the running game. Jacobs does his best work between the tackles while Lloyd is more of an outside threat who can break a long gain any time he touches the football.
The Packers have other options at running back. Damien Martinez and Pierre Strong, Jr. are both back fighting for roster spots and the Packers signed Jaden Nixon as an undrafted free agent. But on paper, none of them can add the dimension that Lloyd can add. Of course, none of that matters if Lloyd can’t get on the field and stay on the field.
So, is 2026 the year we see what MarShawn Lloyd can do, or will be become another great “what if” in Packers history, a player who could have been great if only he was able to stay healthy? The next few months will tell us a lot about the future of MarShawn Lloyd.