Acme Packing Company
It’s a big case study week here at Acme Packing Company. This time, I want to pin down the outlook for MarShawn Lloyd, a third-round running back who has just played one game in two seasons and will seemingly be shut down by the Green Bay Packers at the end of this week.
Here was the criteria that I wanted to find:
In total, I found that 10 of those players (besides Lloyd) exist. I think you can make the argument that two of them were able to “turn it around,” but one of those two was really just buried on the depth chart more than anything else.
Let’s go player-by-player, explaining why these backs played so few games to start their NFL careers and what happened after their second year in the league.
No matter what happens with Lloyd, he probably won’t be the biggest swing and miss from the 2024 running back class. The top back selected in that class was Jonathan Brooks with the 46th overall pick, even though he was coming off an ACL tear in November of his final year of college football.
While Brooks’ camp stated that he would be ready for the start of training camp of his rookie year, he wasn’t activated until Week 14 of the 2024 season. He played just three games before suffering another non-contact ACL tear to the same knee and going on the injured reserve.
In 2025, he started camp on the physically unable to perform list and has spent the entire year there. So far, he’s only registered nine carries for 22 yards in the NFL, all between his first and second ACL tears.
This was more of a story of talent than injury. Tyrion Davis-Price was graded as the 271st overall player in the 2022 class on the consensus board, but he was surprisingly taken 93rd overall by the San Francisco 49ers. Kyle Shanahan simply cannot have a normal backfield.
Price played in six games as a rookie and one game in 2023 before being waived. In total, he had 40 carries for 120 yards for the 49ers. He played in one other game with the Philadelphia Eagles in 2024 (three carries for seven yards) and is now out of the league. Davis-Price actually had a cup of coffee with the Green Bay Packers in 2025, signing with the Packers’ camp roster from August 12th to 26th.
He’s now a member of the Birmingham Stallions of the United Football League.
After being taken 93rd overall by the Tennessee Titans in the 2020 draft, Darrynton Evans had three stints on the injured reserve in his first two years in the NFL. He recorded 16 carries for 61 yards...
