Packers must handle their timeline carefully with a promising playmaker whose availability keeps becoming an issue
MarShawn Lloyd will likely miss the rest of his second season in the NFL.
The start of MarShawn Lloyd’s career couldn’t have been any more disappointing. The sequence of injuries continues for the second-year player, and he’s most likely to miss the rest of the season as his 21-day practice window will soon close just as Lloyd suffered a new hamstring injury last week.
Despite the frustration for everyone involved, the Packers don’t need to rush any decision on Lloyd’s future right now.
Packers don’t have to make a decision on MarShawn Lloyd before 2026
At this point, MarShawn Lloyd is still on injured reserve, so he doesn’t waste a roster spot anyway. Cutting him now wouldn’t bring the Packers any benefit, outside of a marginal $167k in cash savings and cap room. Therefore, the Packers can just keep Lloyd on the injured reserve through the end of the season and carry him on the 90-man roster throughout the offseason.
Green Bay gave Lloyd a $959,284 signing bonus as a third-round pick back in 2024, and that’s the entire guarantee of his deal. The running back’s salary in 2026 is slated to be $1.262 million in base, plus $50k in a workout bonus.
“It’s one of those things that are very unfortunate, because this guy has worked his ass off to battle back and be in that spot again,” head coach Matt LaFleur said. “What do you say to him? We’ll continue to investigate and try to figure out why this keeps occurring, but it’s certainly unfortunate. I feel bad. I really do. I feel extremely bad for MarShawn.
If the Packers keep MarShawn Lloyd throughout the offseason program and training camp to see if he can find the origin of the problem and solve it, they won’t have any extra cap burden outside of those $50k. The team can just keep the offensive player on the 90-man roster and make a decision for the final roster cuts in 2026, ahead of Week 1.
Because Lloyd is not a vested veteran, his base salary doesn’t become fully guaranteed after Week 1 either. The Packers will only get rid of Lloyd if they don’t think he’s worth the small investment anymore, and there’s little benefit to pulling that trigger before next year’s training camp. Lloyd is under contract through 2027.
It’s obviously disappointing to handle that sequence with a third-round pick who generated high expectations coming out of college, but rushing a final call doesn’t make it any better.
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