Emanuel Wilson still has a long way to go with Packers
Emanuel Wilson is currently the leading rusher on the Green Bay Packers – and it's by a mile-wide margin. Wilson has amassed 174 rushing yards and two rushing touchdowns on 21 carries through two preseason games. The Packers' next-leading rusher, A.J. Dillon, has 39 rushing yards on eight carries. As a matter of fact, Wilson's […]
Emanuel Wilson is currently the leading rusher on the Green Bay Packers – and it's by a mile-wide margin.
Wilson has amassed 174 rushing yards and two rushing touchdowns on 21 carries through two preseason games. The Packers' next-leading rusher, A.J. Dillon, has 39 rushing yards on eight carries. As a matter of fact, Wilson's rushing yardage and his two TDs also lead the entire NFL, per Pro Football Focus.
The undrafted rookie is averaging a whopping 8.3 yards per carry and his six first downs lead all NFL running backs with at least 13 carries. He has forced the most missed tackles (7) and also has the most runs of 10+ yards (4) among qualifying players.
Yet, he still won't make the Packers' final roster.
The Packers have made it very clear that the RB3 job -if they even carry three backs- will come down to special teams play and pass protection, before anything else. So far, Wilson has just two special teams snaps through two preseason games and both came Saturday night against the New England Patriots. In terms of pass pro, Wilson has been asked to block a grand total of one time, per PFF. And while he graded out well on that rep, it's still a very small sample size that probably won't count in the grand scheme of things.
There's still a lot of unknown with Wilson and Packers head coach Matt LaFleur recently added more to the list of improvements the former Wildcat needs to make over this final week of the preseason.
"Yeah, I think there's there's a lot of room for him to continue to grow," LaFleur told reporters Sunday. "And he's got to make sure -and I mentioned it last night- he gets his conditioning in a better spot, as well, in order to be able to just sustain. But he's he's done a lot of good things. He's a good, young player."
The conditioning comment is quite the eye-opener. If Wilson isn't in total game shape, then it's hard to foresee the Packers keeping him on the roster so he can get up to speed.
The team has a proven guy in Patrick Taylor, who is going on his third year in both the NFL and the Packers' offensive system and they also have Tyler Goodson. The latter was having a great training camp before he injured himself against the Cincinnati Bengals in Week 1.
In other words: The Packers don't have to wait on Wilson to improve his conditioning. And with Taylor tying for the team-lead in special teams snaps on top of his nifty touchdown run against the Patriots – they aren't going to wait.
Featured image via Katie Stratman-USA TODAY Sports
