DENVER – The linebacker had no chance.
MarShawn Lloyd hadn’t even turned on the burners yet, and he had a clear path to the end zone. The running back was gifted a choice route on the Green Bay Packers’ opening drive in Denver, and when the Broncos defense deserted the middle of the field, that choice was easy. Lloyd stuttered, juked his shoulder outside, and now the burners were coming.
He sprinted away from Dondrea Tillman like the Broncos outside linebacker was stuck in concrete.
In a flash, Lloyd offered a little reminder of why he’s maybe the most intriguing player entering the Packers season. Why this team has stayed so stubbornly patient as he’s missed two years of football, caught in a revolving door of injuries. When Lloyd gets a little crease, he’s gone. This time, it was an 11-yard touchdown catch from quarterback Jordan Love, his first trip to the end zone since he was a college junior on Nov. 11, 2023, and the Packers sure don’t expect he’ll take that long to return.
“He’s just such a you know fast, explosive player,” Love said. “Does a great job catching the ball. So a route like that where he’s got an option, and he was able to kind of break the defender off, it was a great route by him.”
Lloyd is checking off milestones as he passes through his first healthy camp before his third season. After working with Dr. John Meyer of the Meyer Institute of Sport, Lloyd was convinced this offseason he’d finally unriddled how to stay on the field. Check. He’s practiced every day since camp opened July 29 with no significant rep limit, and now he’s putting multiple games together.
After missing so much time, Lloyd is also showing he can still make plays. Before his touchdown, he stretched a designed perimeter run on third-and-1 to the left sideline. The Broncos’ ferocious defense stretched with him, and as the sideline approached, Lloyd had nowhere to go. He lowered his pads and bulled over a Broncos defender, picking up the first down.
Need a running back who can get a tough yard when he must? Check.
On the next drive, Lloyd had nowhere to go on an outside zone carry. So he improvised, bouncing outside left tackle, running through Broncos outside linebacker Nick Bonito’s lunging arm tackle, and pulling away for 7 yards.
Still explosive? Check.
There is still a long way to go before Lloyd regains the timing, vision and feel he once had, back when playing every week was something he never had to think about, because he just did it. Running back is a blend of calculated precision and inexact science. No play ever unfolds how it’s drawn up. The running back must see, sense and react in split-second timing, or else the play implodes.
Reviving those instincts is not like learning how to ride a bike again.
“You never know how a person is going to react,” Lloyd said. “You never know what they’re going to do. It’s just a feel thing. In order to get good at something, you have to do it constantly, constantly, constantly, constantly. I don’t have much reps under my belt, live reps at all. So it’s been good to actually make plays and get out there.”
It’s going to take time for Lloyd to knock off the accumulated rust, and there were plenty of those reminders in Denver too.
On multiple carries, Lloyd had an alley but couldn’t time it up for a bigger gain, letting the space close in around him. He caught a touchdown, but Lloyd also finished with 17 yards on six carries. His 2.8-yard average was lower than Pierre Strong Jr., Jaden Nixon and Damien Martinez. Including last week’s preseason opener in Pittsburgh, Lloyd has 30 yards on 10 carries. Low proficiency for someone with his kind of burst.
“It’s just a repetition thing,” Lloyd said. “I’ve got to see different things. I’ve got to be put in different circumstances, things like that. Honestly just being out there, it helps a lot. Especially in a live (setting). In practice, it’s good to do things in practice, but when you’re actually playing against somebody else that’s actually trying to tackle you, that makes it a lot different.”
Nobody has tried to tackle Lloyd in two years. It shows. The robotic movement of practice doesn’t work in games. Running back is like playing jazz.
Sometimes, they must go where the rhythm takes them.
“It’s us,” center Sean Rhyan said, “and it’s him. He’s kind of got to learn, he has his landmarks, and we have our timing.”
All that stands between Lloyd and regular-season carries is a joint practice and one more preseason game. Considering Josh Jacobs’ uncertain legal situation as a domestic abuse investigation by the Brown County district attorney’s office continues, there’s at least a chance the Packers will need Lloyd to be their workhorse Week 1 in Minnesota.
It leaves a tricky balance for coach Matt LaFleur as he prepares for next week’s preseason finale against the Arizona Cardinals. The Packers need to keep Lloyd healthy. They also need to prepare him to play. Based on Lloyd’s six carries, only two more than last week in Pittsburgh, LaFleur has no interest in pushing the accelerator too quickly.
“It’s more of a build,” LaFleur said. “I thought he had a really good performance, though, and certainly don’t want to put him in a position where you’re going backwards.”
Somewhere buried in the rust of these past two years, Lloyd has shown a talented football player remains. In time, his explosiveness could be an ideal complement to the Packers’ power run game with Jacobs, but this team doesn’t have time. The regular season is coming.
Lloyd, healthier than he’s been in a long time, wouldn’t mind the extra work.
“Whatever they want, honestly,” Lloyd said. “I’m ready to go. I’ve been able to practice through everything. No limit on practice. So whenever they’re ready to do it, I’m there.”
This article originally appeared on Packers News: Packers must balance running back MarShawn Lloyd’s health, readiness
Reporting by Ryan Wood, Green Bay Press-Gazette / Packers News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Ryan Wood, Green Bay Press-Gazette | USA TODAY Network
