Former rushing champion Josh Jacobs returned to form, in his first season with the Packers in 2024, and could benefit from a motivated and invigorated backfield mate in 2025.
Jacobs rushed for 1,329 yards, representing the second-most in his career to date, and a career-high 15 touchdowns last season while shouldering the vast majority of the workload in the Packers’ running game.
It likely wasn’t by design that Jacobs would log 301 carries at age 26, but it became necessary when rookie back Marshawn Lloyd managed just six carries during a season torpedoed by injuries.
Marshawn Lloyd Vows Packers Rebound in 2025
After working his way all the way back, Lloyd sounds ready to hit the ground running for the Packers, and emerge as a complement to Jacobs’ explosiveness in Green Bay’s offense.
Just don’t call it a rehab.
“Not rehabbing anything just, when you go through a year where you have certain things, like, you have a hamstring or you have a hip, there’s certain things you can’t just throw a person out there,” Lloyd recently told reporters.
“You got to figure things out, you got to figure the body out, so I was up for playing and feeling 100%, but they wanted to just slowly get my way into it. I haven’t played a team sport for, it’s been a minute. Eventually, as the middle of OTAs went through, I started to get back into practices, and now I’m good.”
Now all-systems-go during OTAs and minicamp for the Packers this spring, both Lloyd and Green Bay are rightfully optimistic, given his 1,621 yards and 19 touchdowns across three collegiate seasons at South Carolina and later USC before entering the NFL Draft.
Lloyd walks into a crowded backfield, alongside Jacobs and Emmanuel Wilson, but sounds determined to carve out his own niche, and if he succeeds, it could provide some serious balance for quarterback Jordan Love and the offense while keeping Jacobs just a bit more fresh through the rigors of an NFL season.
“I play football,” Lloyd said. “I am very comfortable with everything I can do. I am not trying to prove anything to anybody. I know what I can do. I mean, if you’re watching, you’re watching.”
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