Marshawn Lloyd is a PROBLEM (derogatory). While the early woes of the Green Bay Packers’ offensive line have prevented any running back from really getting going, Kaleb Johnson at least averages 3.7 yards per carry, and Chris Brooks, prior to his injury, hit a solid 4.7 yards per carry. Now, those numbers are bolstered by a few long runs, and they have both been bad on a per play basis, but at least they’re bolstered by something.
Marshawn Lloyd has no juice. If there was some sort of vampire plant
that sucked all the juice out of useful plants, that is what he would be. He has anti-juice. He’s just pulp.
How bad is it? Since the merger, there are only seven running backs ever to average 2.5 yards or less per carry for their career while having over 50 carries. Four of those backs ran in 1982 or earlier (Willie Spencer, Reece Morrison, Odell Lawson, and Michael Morton). Marshawn Lloyd, along with Keaontay Ingram and Isaiah Spiller) is one of only three to pull this off since 1982.
It gets worse! The NFL’s wonderful NextGenStats site tracks how many yards a running back should have gotten each carry based on the blocking, quality of defense, and several other factors. Marshawn Lloyd is dead last in Rushing Yards Over Expected per Attempt (RYOE/ATT) with -1.55. Yes, on average, every single carry he has gained 1.5 fewer yards than an average back who simply followed his blocking and then fell down. Alvin Kamara is second worst in this category with -1.19, which is WAY better than Lloyd.
Lloyd also unsurprisingly “leads” the league in negative total Rushing Yards Over Expected (RYOE) with -75, just edging JK Dobbins (-72). Lloyd has gained more yards than expected on just 27.1% of his total carries, or 13 of his total carries. And he’s doing all of this against light boxes, as only five running backs have faced light boxes less than Lloyd in the 2026 season.
NextGenStats also tracks a metric simply called “Efficiency.” Efficiency tracks how many yards a back travels per yard gained. A lower efficiency metric indicates a more “North-South” runner. Marshawn Lloyd averaged 6.06 yards run per yard gained, the second least efficient total in football (Keaton Mitchell somehow averages 6.27). This is indicative of Lloyd’s tendency to bounce runs outside even when putting his head down and charging forward is clearly the best idea.
While the passing game is more important than the running game in football, you cannot survive with this level of play for very long. I wrote a piece a few weeks ago about some of the worst Packer rushing teams of all time, including a bit on running back Michael Haddix, who played for Green Bay from 1989-1990. Haddix holds the NFL record for the lowest career Y/A (3.0) for any player with over 500 carries. I am sure Lloyd will have his carries cut (especially if Josh Jacobs returns), but he is on pace for 136 carries this season at 2.5 Y/A, a full yard shy of the worst high volume back of all time. Continuing to play him after he ran for 10 yards on 8 carries against Dallas this week is inexcusable.
