Paul Bretl | 8/8/2025
GREEN BAY, Wis. — Packers’ second-year running back MarShawn Lloyd is making progress as he returns from a groin injury. While not yet back to going through individual drills or the team period at practice, Lloyd was wearing his helmet and doing cutting work with a ball in his hand off to the side.
“Just going through everything they were doing out there, just going over the plays, getting back in condition shape and pretty much just going over the script, doing extra cuts and stuff like that,” Lloyd said after Thursday’s practice.
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Lloyd is working his way back from a groin injury that has sidelined him for the last week-plus of training camp practices. This setback comes on the heels of what was an injury-riddled rookie season for the Packers’ 2024 third-round draft pick.
Navigating various injuries throughout the year, including hamstring and foot injuries, along with appendicitis, Lloyd would miss a portion of last summer’s training camp and appeared in only one preseason game. In the regular season, he played just 10 snaps in Week 2 and had six carries on the year.
To help avoid the soft tissue injuries that Lloyd experienced during his rookie year, Lloyd spent time late last season at UW-Madison, going through a variety of exercises to help identify any “deficiencies,” as Lloyd put it, or specific areas that need to be strengthened to help reduce future injuries.
“Just staying in my faith, staying in a routine even though I’m hurt, was hurt, even though I was injured some, I just made sure I stayed on my routine and treated every day like I was practicing and like I was playing and then everything just rolled on,” Lloyd said about navigating injuries.
Regardless of what Lloyd has had to work through, he’s remained positive. He leans on his faith as well as some of the veteran players in the locker room.
Fellow running back Josh Jacobs would ride over to practice each day last season with Lloyd to help keep him engaged and his spirits up. In the Packers’ new-look locker room, the arrangement of the lockers and where players are positioned is, in part, by design, as Matt LaFleur said.
So it’s probably not a coincidence that to Lloyd’s left is Kenny Clark and few lockers down to Lloyd’s right is Xavier McKinney, and on the other side of the entrance that Lloyd is positioned near is Jacobs.
“It’s great, especially a guy like him,” Lloyd said about being next to Clark. “You don’t get three contracts with the same team on accident. You have to listen to him, it’s good to have a guy like that right there.
“It’s good to have another guy like that right there (looks to Xavier McKinney), it’s good to have another guy like that over there (looks to Josh Jacobs), so Josh Jacobs, Xavier McKinney, just watching them, seeing them, just observing things they do every day and just trying to take what I can from it.”
Prior to his injury, Lloyd was getting steady work as the Packers’ No. 2 back behind Jacobs. Since he arrived in Green Bay, it’s been easy to spot Lloyd’s burst and explosiveness with the ball in his hands. That juice and change-of-direction ability adds a different element to the Packers’ backfield. LaFleur also believes he can be a threat in the passing game as well.
Lloyd wasn’t going to put a timetable on his return, but he feels good and is excited about the upcoming season–ready to finally showcase what he can do on the field.
“I feel good right now, I don’t really know,” Lloyd said of this timeline. “You couldn’t tell me if I wasn’t 100 percent just the way I can move right now. Really, just whenever the strength staff and the training room, whenever they’re ready for me to go, then I’ll be ready to let loose.”