Paul Bretl | 5/23/2025
GREEN BAY, Wis. — The Packers leaned very heavily on Josh Jacobs last season, who finished with the fourth-most carries of any running back in football, and that reliance on his ability to shoulder a heavy workload isn’t going to change.
However, beyond Jacobs at the running back position, the Packers have built out a well-rounded room, and how those final roster spots shake out will perhaps be one of the more intriguing training camp battles to watch this summer.
“That’s the thing—all these guys have different assets that they bring to the table,” said running backs coach Ben Sirmans.
As 2024 third-round draft pick MarShawn Lloyd said at his locker during cleanout day, following the Packers’ loss to Philadelphia, it had been a “very, very rough year.”
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Training camp for Lloyd last summer was delayed due to a hip injury. A hamstring tweak in the Packers’ preseason opener would keep him sidelined until Week 2 of the regular season, at which point he suffered a foot injury against Indianapolis.
That would land him on injured reserve. Then, as Lloyd was working his way back, he was hit by appendicitis. In his recovery from that, Lloyd would tweak his hamstring, which ended his season. He finished his rookie season, appearing in one game and playing 10 snaps.
“I think he’s in a much better spot,” said Sirmans. “Mentally, he’s pretty sharp there in the classroom. He’s moving around pretty good out there on the football field.”
While we saw very little of Lloyd on Sundays, his explosiveness with the ball in his hands was very easy to spot on the practice field, and could provide the offense with some added big-play ability–an element that was missing last season.
As GM Brian Gutekunst put it after the 2024 draft, Lloyd brings something “different” to the Packers’ backfield than the other running backs on the roster. Lloyd measures in at 5-9 – 220 pounds and has terrific burst–running in the 4.4s–and change of direction ability that is easily spotted on the practice field when the ball is in his hands.
Matt LaFleur views Lloyd as a back who can bring a change of pace to the running back position with his speed and also be someone who can impact the passing game as well, giving the Packers a “matchup nightmare,” as LaFleur called him during the offseason, out of the backfield.
“Obviously, we’ve got a lot of high expectations for him because he brings a different blend to our offense just with his speed and quickness,” Sirmans added. “I’m pretty pleased with him so far and looking forward to getting him out there in a real game situation.”
In addition to Lloyd, the Packers also have Emanuel Wilson and Chris Brooks, who were the second and third running backs on the Packers’ roster last season. Each of these backs brings something different to the offense.
Wilson has 132 carries over his first two NFL seasons, but even with that relatively small sample size, his ability to make defenders miss and create chunk runs has frequently been on display. This past season, Wilson averaged 4.8 yards per rush, making the most out of his 106 rush attempts.
For some context, that 4.8 yards per rush figure was tied for the eighth-highest mark in football. Wilson also forced 28 missed tackles and ranked 24th in PFF’s breakaway rate metric, which measures how often a back generates a run of 15-plus yards.
As Sirmans has described previously, Wilson’s ability to cut on a dime and change directions is what makes him so difficult to bring down. While Wilson’s ability with the ball in his hands is what will stand out, his ability to impact the passing game, both as a receiver and pass blocker, has grown immensely, and those are prerequisites to playing running back in Matt LaFleur’s offense.
“I think he only had one mental mistake,” Sirmans said of Wilson, “even though he didn’t play as much as a rookie but he played a lot this (past) year, to have only one mistake just speaks volumes to how he has grown so even this year he seems a lot more comfortable in the offense, he’s practicing a lot harder, so I think he’s finally gotten to that point where he’s kind of evolved a lot more. So definitely expecting a lot of things out of him.”
Brooks, meanwhile, filled a do-it-all role at the running back position last season. Brooks would carry the ball 36 times and averaged 5.1 yards per rush, and he also caught 13 passes.
But oftentimes when Brooks was on the field, he was a blocker, and that ability particularly stood out in pass protection, specifically when it came to picking up blitzers. We also saw Brooks’ versatility utilized with him lining up across the formation, including out wide and in the backfield as more of a fullback with Jacobs.
“Us having the ability to utilize him not just as a runner or in pass protection but even through some of the run-blocking stuff that you would do with a traditional F, him having the ability to do that and then still have the skill set as a runner,” said Sirmans. “I mean, that’s a plus for us because some of the things he does, we don’t use anybody else in the backfield in that way.”
Those four players already make this Packers’ running back room fairly crowded, but the depth extends beyond them.
In the short time that the Packers have had with the rookies, UDFA signings Amar Johnson and Jalen White have already caught Sirmans’ attention, although he did add the caveat that it is still early and the Packers won’t truly know what they have in those two players until training camp and the preseason takes place.
“I’m actually pretty excited about both of those guys,” said Sirmans. “Because they both move around pretty well. Obviously Amar, he’s pretty fast, and I think looking at Jalen, he has really good feet.”
On a Packers roster that had very little turnover this offseason, compared to some seasons, there aren’t all that many roster spots that are truly up for grabs. But one of the more intriguing positional battles that could take place this summer may be at running back, where behind Jacobs, there are three players vying for potentially just two spots.