GREEN BAY, Wis. – If it wasn’t for bad luck, Green Bay Packers running back MarShawn Lloyd wouldn’t have any luck at all.
After missing a big chunk of training camp with a groin injury, Lloyd started for the Packers against the Indianapolis Colts on Saturday. His one big play of the day was his final play of the day. After catching a 33-yard pass from Malik Willis, Lloyd took a hard hit from safety Rodney Thomas. Lloyd was helped up by teammates at the sideline; it wasn’t the hit, though, that ended Lloyd’s day. It reportedly was hamstring tightness.
“We’ll see,” is all coach Matt LaFleur had to say after the 23-19 victory in Indianapolis.
Marshawn Lloyd with 33 yards on the wheel route
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Fourth-round defensive end Barryn Sorrell injured a knee while on punt coverage. Later, he rode a stationary bike on the sideline, which presumably is a good sign, but he’ll be evaluated further once the team returns to Green Bay. More troubling is safety Omar Brown, who was carted off the field after what LaFleur called a chest contusion.
“It’s a kind of a scary deal,” LaFleur said. “He’ll be staying overnight.”
As for Lloyd, the injury is not considered severe, a source said, but it must be disconcerting to the team, considering the long list of injuries that limited him to just one game and 10 snaps as a rookie.
- Last year as a third-round pick, he joined the rest of the rookies in arriving a few days early for the start of training camp. Lloyd sustained a hip injury, which sidelined him for the first couple weeks of full-squad practices.
- In his lone preseason game, Lloyd sustained a hamstring injury, which sidelined him for the rest of training camp as well as Week 1.
- In Week 2, Lloyd made his NFL debut against the Colts. He touched the ball on seven of 10 snaps before sustaining an ankle injury that sent him to injured reserve.
- As he was about to return to game action for the midseason matchup at the Bears, he was stricken by appendicitis and had an appendectomy. That required Lloyd to return to injured reserve.
- At the end of the season, Lloyd tried one final time to get back on the field but sustained a hamstring injury.
- This year, Lloyd suffered a groin injury at training camp on July 28. After missing two weeks of practice, he returned to full-squad activities on Tuesday. He immediately made his presence felt with a wicked cut that turned a tackle for loss into a big gain.
“It’s everything,” Lloyd said of what that play meant. “That’s my job. That’s what I love to do. I love to be able to make plays. I love being able to put myself in position to make those plays. I think O-line did a great job. Now, it’s just being able to run it back and be the guy that they drafted.”
Asked after that practice if he was “100 percent” healthy, Lloyd said, “I can play. I’m ready to go. I can play. The thing about our training staff is they wouldn’t put anyone out there if they’re not physically or mentally ready to go. I’m ready to go. They put me out there and I’ve been able to just do my job.”
The Packers will return to Green Bay for the final week of training camp, which will be capped by Thursday’s joint practice against the Seahawks before Saturday’s preseason finale against Seattle. After that, it’s the league-wide bye before teams start getting ready for Week 1.
Presumably, the team will use those two weeks in hopes that it can get Lloyd back on the field.
“Anytime a guy goes down with any type of injury, it’s tough,” running back Josh Jacobs, Lloyd’s mentor, said after Lloyd was injured earlier in camp. “Especially a guy like MarShawn, obviously, he’s been battling through some things last year with the injuries, so you hate to see that.
“It’s one of those things where he’s got to do a great job in treatment and rehab with the trainers to be able to get back as fast as possible, because every rep that he gets is going to be so valuable for him and then preseason is going to be a big deal for him.”
Assuming Lloyd doesn’t have to go on injured reserve, the latest injury could impact general manager Brian Gutekunst’s formulation of the 53-man roster injury. With Lloyd’s injury history, he might feel compelled to keep four backs. That, obviously, would impact another position.
As it is, Lloyd has had almost as many injuries in the NFL as he’s had touches.
“I feel for him because he’s worked so far to get his body into elite shape and overcome some of these injuries,” Gutekunst said earlier in camp. “Sometimes you’re a little bit snakebit. I was talking to the trainers (and) whenever I see players go through this, from time to time we’ll have guys go through things like this where they have a bunch of injuries early, I always think of Mike Flanagan.”
A third-round pick by the Packers in 1996, Flanagan didn’t play in a game until 1999 and didn’t start a game until 2000.
“There was probably a lot of times,” Gutekunst continued, “where people thought, ‘OK, well, that’s never going to work,’ but they hung on and he was a great player for a long time for us here. Sometimes, that’s hard to explain to a player, just to keep the faith and keep patience, because I’m sure this has been tough on him, but he’s done everything we’ve asked him to do and more to overcome these things, and I’m sure there’ll be a time where he will.”