Despite a rocky NFL debut, the Packers are betting big on their explosive offensive weapon to turn the season around.QQ
Running back MarShawn Lloyd suffered a hamstring injury in preseason and hasn’t been able to return to the field since.
The Green Bay Packers had a vision for MarShawn Lloyd when they took him in the third round of last year’s draft. Explosive and fast player, he would be the perfect complement to what free agent addition Josh Jacobs was able to offer.
Almost 20 months later, the Packers have not been allowed to realize that vision. Multiple injuries have gotten in Lloyd’s way, and he has played only one game in the NFL. Despite the tough start, though, the team hasn’t given up on him.
The next Giants head coach may already be DOOMED to fail before he’s even hired…The next Giants head coach may already be DOOMED to fail before he’s even hired…
Packers want a solid recovery process
While MarShawn Lloyd is already eligible to return from injured reserve after suffering a new hamstring injury in the preseason, the Packers are preaching patience to make sure he’s fully and sustainably healthy whenever he returns to action.
On Thursday, head coach Matt LaFleur explained that the Packers sent Lloyd to specialists to evaluate his injury history and deeper causes for it.
“No,” LaFleur said when asked if there had been a re-aggravation of Lloy’s injury in recent weeks. “We actually sent him out West to another group to try to get his body right. It sounds like the results are promising, but we’ll see.”
According to Tom Silverstein, from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, MarShawn Lloyd met with more specialists to help “figure out imbalances in his body that may be causing the hamstring and groin injuries that have sidelined him.”
Those issues are a result of a knee injury the running back suffered in college. Lloyd tore his ACL back in 2020, his redshirt year at South Carolina. After that, though, he played 26 college games through two seasons at South Carolina and one at USC. That’s why Green Bay was comfortable taking him in the third round.
It doesn’t make sense for the Packers to activate Lloyd if the team doesn’t feel safe about his health status — an NFL team has only eight activations from IR during a regular season. Meanwhile, the offense has Emanuel Wilson and Chris Brooks behind Jacobs — even if none of them offers the same explosive upside that Lloyd has.
