Evan Williams: 'People Forgot' What Packers' Resilient MarShawn Lloyd is Capable Of
The former third-round pick has been through the wringer, but a clean bill of health could position him for a long-awaited breakout in Green Bay.
GREEN BAY, Wis. — The proof will be in the pudding because the Green Bay Packers have gotten their hopes up twice already, but the third time’s the charm.
And, by all accounts, the hype train for MarShawn Lloyd is already operating at warp speed.
Lloyd, who has been placed on injured reserve four times in his two-year career, is still in the mix in the Packers’ backfield. Despite the myriad injuries and downright misfortune that he’s faced since entering the league as a third-round pick of the Packers in the spring of 2024, there’s optimism—albeit cautious—that Lloyd has finally turned a corner.
Don’t take my word for it.
When asked to name someone who the masses aren’t talking enough about, starting safety Evan Williams had a quick answer for WFRV Local 5’s Carson Fowler.
“Probably this guy to my left,” Williams said, gesturing to the locker beside his where Lloyd was rummaging through his belongings. “This guy MarShawn, dude. I feel like a lot of people forgot just what he’s capable of. He shows up on a daily basis and puts in the work, and he’s flying a million miles an hour.”
The 25-year-old Lloyd has been through the wringer in his short professional career to this point, but there’s an opportunity to be seized in the Packers’ backfield. The team opted not to retain Emanuel Wilson, who has served as the No. 2 running back behind Josh Jacobs for the last two seasons. He has since signed with the Seattle Seahawks, leaving Chris Brooks—a third-down fixture in obvious passing situations due to his blocking prowess—as the only trusted option in the stable.
The Packers will utilize training camp and their three preseason games to gauge what they have in Damien Martinez, Jaden Nixon, and Pierre Strong Jr., but Lloyd takes precedence. In the brief glimpses that the Packers have seen of Lloyd’s ability, it’s become clear that there’s a true, game-breaking talent that’s just waiting to be unleashed.
“He’s had some bad breaks as far as injuries go, but he’s ready,” Williams said. “People have started to write him off, but he’s going to turn some heads this year.”
As a rookie, Lloyd dropped out of the Packers' preseason opener with a hamstring injury and missed roughly a month before returning in time for the inaugural home game of the regular season. He carried the ball six times for 15 yards against the Indianapolis Colts before exiting with an ankle injury. The Packers placed Lloyd on season-ending injured reserve, allowing him to rehabilitate in hopes that he’ll be able to return at some point later in the season.
That point came in November when they were ramping him up in practice, setting the stage for him to return to the field; however, Lloyd had appendicitis and had to undergo an emergency appendectomy and reverted to injured reserve.
The following summer, Lloyd was once again forced to the shelf after sustaining another hamstring injury. His audition hardly lasted a quarter, carrying the ball six times for 15 yards against the Colts—a bizarre, eerie coincidence—and even drawing four targets in the passing game from Malik Willis. Lloyd hauled in a 33-yard completion on a wheel route down the sideline, but reported hamstring tightness to the Packers’ medical staff shortly after.
He had already dropped out of the first padded practice of the summer on July 28 with a groin injury, forcing him to miss seven practice sessions before returning on Aug. 11. The hamstring Lloyd pulled against the Colts landed him on injured reserve again, spending nearly four months there before being designated to return on Dec. 1. The Packers listed him with a calf injury upon his return to practice—not a hamstring, but he’d eventually suffer another hamstring injury over the course of the month and land on injured reserve for a fourth time.
“He’s had some really tough circumstances and has fought through a lot of adversity,” said head coach Matt LaFleur during Organized Team Activities (OTAs) in May. “For a lot of guys—guys who can fight through adversity and stay positive, which he’s done—there’s a lot that can come from that in a positive sense.”
Lloyd has worked closely with the Packers’ medical staff to analyze what can only be described as chronic lower-body injuries, even flying out west for further evaluations that include biomechanical stride analysis. The belief was that the anterior cruciate ligament tear he suffered during his freshman season at South Carolina had ramifications that lingered to this day, long after it was surgically repaired.
The answers that Lloyd sought were encouraging. He consulted with a handful of specialists at Meyer Institute of Sports in El Segundo, California, who revealed that Lloyd’s lower body wasn’t symmetrical—his stride mechanics were overcompensating, adding stress to certain joints and muscles.
Lloyd is still feeling the effects of the collegiate injury—mentally and physically. His NFL career hasn’t panned out the way anyone had hoped, but there’s still an opportunity for him to rewrite his story and change the narrative. Lloyd has openly credited his support system, which includes Dr. Chris Carr, the Packers’ performance psychologist.
The Packers’ belief in Lloyd may even be undeterred, despite everything. They didn’t swing for the fences for a new running back to complement Jacobs, nor did they draft one in April. They’re positioning Lloyd to take advantage of a role that, in LaFleur’s offense, has proven to be incredibly significant. Wilson carried the ball 125 times last year and was on the field for 31 percent of the offensive snaps—if the Packers can achieve even some semblance of that level of production from Lloyd, 2026 will be a success.