Injuries have derailed MarShawn Lloyd's career so far. Can he finally make an impact, or is he a bust for the Green Bay Packers?
The expectations were high for running back MarShawn Lloyd heading into his rookie season with the Green Bay Packers. After all, the Packers selected him in the third round of the 2024 NFL Draft.
That's a pretty high pick for a running back, but Green Bay general manager Brian Gutekunst obviously liked what he saw out of Lloyd coming out of USC. As a junior at USC, Lloyd rushed for 820 yards and nine touchdowns while adding 232 yards as a receiver.
He was quick, twitchy, and explosive. Especailly after adding Josh Jacobs in free agency, the plan to pair him with Lloyd made sense. The Packers were going for a "thunder and lightning" combo in the backfield.
Unfortunately, head coach Matt LaFleur hasn't been able to execute that plan, because in two seasons, Lloyd has played in just one game due to injury. His rookie season was ruined by hip, hamstring and ankle injuries and then the cherry on top was an appendectomy.
Over the summer, he dealt with a groin injury. This past preseason, he hurt his hamstring after making a great catch in a preseason game. That led him back to the injured reserve, where he's been ever since.
The good news is that the Packers did designate him for return from injured reserve on Monday. That opened up a 21-day practice window in which they can either put him back on the 53-man roster or they'll have to shut him down entirely.
That's the good news. The bad news? By Wednesday, he was limited with another injury. It wasn't the calf that sent him to the IR, but rather a hamstring injury that he suffered during rehab.
One has to imagine that this has been as mentally taxing for Lloyd as it has been physically problematic, and he basically admitted to that after practice on Wednesday.
“I had one of my teammates come up to me and asked me, ‘How do you do it?’ And I’m like, ‘I don’t know.’ It’s hard. It’s definitely hard, but you got to keep your faith. You got to keep your faith and you got to keep good people around you just to make sure you keep yourself in the right mind," he said, according to Bill Huber of OnSI.
So what are the realistic expectations for Lloyd for the rest of this season? Should we even have expectations?
It would nice to think that Lloyd can come in over the next few weeks and give this Packers offense a boost of speed and shiftiness in the backfield, but we have no references over the first two years of his NFL career that could lead us to realistically believe that he'll stay healthy.
Heck, he couldn't even stay healthy while rehabbing. With that said, what is going to happen once he's back on the field and taking real hits?
Unfortunately, Lloyd may simply just be a busted pick. Life in the NFL is tough and it's tough on player's bodies. Some can handle it and some can't. So far, Lloyd simply can't.
Hopefully, for this kid's sake and the Packers' sake, this evaluation is wrong. There's not much reason to believe that it won't be, though.