The season is young, but there is deep concern about the future of the Packers Running Back position.\u00a0 A.J. Dillon was drafted to maintain the depth of the position and be the future of the team.\u00a0 Immediate regression has been apparent and signals a need to re-evaluate the entire position group.\u00a0 A.J. Dillon is not the answer to the long-term needs at the Running Back position.\u00a0 The Green Bay Packers will need to completely rebuild the Running Back room.<\/p>\n
[cta id=4013 type=cta]<\/span><\/p>\n There were immediate concerns about Dillon on draft weekend.\u00a0 The Packers had many needs after a 2019 season that was generally successful.\u00a0 The Packers reached the NFC Title game but finished 17th in passing yards and 15th in rushing yards<\/a>.\u00a0 The defense had been a problem, allowing 37 points to the San Francisco 49ers in the NFC Championship.\u00a0 Blake Martinez<\/a> left and the Packers entered 2020 with Christian Kirksey<\/a> and undrafted Rookie Free Agent Krys Barnes<\/a> at the Inside Linebacker positions.\u00a0 The Packers were rolling into one last run with Kevin King at the Cornerback position.\u00a0 With Aaron Jones<\/a> and Jamaal Williams<\/a> holding down a steady backfield, this did not appear to be an area of need.<\/p>\n The Packers took Dillon in the second round, just four picks before Antonio Gibson<\/a>.\u00a0 In the area just after Dillon, teams selected Safety Jeremy Chinn<\/a> and Linebacker Logan Wilson.\u00a0 Drafting a Running Back made some sense as Williams and Jones were approaching contract years, but Dillon was projected to be available in the third to fifth rounds<\/a>.\u00a0 The value of the pick did not make sense at the time and has not paid out horribly well.<\/p>\n Dillon was a high volume Running Back at Boston College.\u00a0 He did well in that role.\u00a0 He managed to average 5.2 yards per carry over three seasons.\u00a0 However, this took its toll.\u00a0 Dillon had two seasons with 300+ carries<\/a>.\u00a0 For comparison, Ron Dayne<\/a> did that once in four years at Wisconsin<\/a>.\u00a0 Bijan Robinson<\/a> never hit 300 carries (his highest was 258<\/a>).\u00a0 Derrick Henry<\/a> had one high carry season at Alabama but only had 205 carries in his first two seasons combined.<\/p>\n The basic concept is that running backs tend to have a limited number of carries.\u00a0 There are some statistical analyses<\/a> that make the point that carries in college may not matter, but the overall banging is concerning.\u00a0 Players like Aaron Jones get carries, but his running style leads to more tackles from being tripped up or glancing blows.\u00a0 Dillon is very much a head-on tackle.\u00a0 His size also means many players are coming in at thigh and knee level.<\/p>\n [metabet_core_side_odds_tile query=”fbp\/green_bay_packers” size=”350×300″ site_id=”lastwordonsports”]<\/p>\n Dillon had his breakout game against Tennessee in his rookie season.\u00a0 On a cold day, he turned 21 carries into 124 yards and two touchdowns.\u00a0 That was the only 100+ yard performance in three full seasons now.\u00a0 In fact, he has only had two other games of 100+ yards from scrimmage.\u00a0 Meanwhile, Jamaal Williams had 1,066 yards and 17 touchdowns for the Lions last year.<\/p>\n Additionally, Dillon’s success rate has now fallen under 50%.\u00a0 While he managed a 61.0% success rate in 2021, it fell to 56.5% in 2022.\u00a0 Through two games in 2023, Dillon has put up a mere 42.9% success rate.\u00a0 Dillon has never been particularly good at lateral movement.\u00a0 Making sharp cuts is not his game.\u00a0 The Packers run game seems intent on making plays to the outside, which takes Dillon’s power out of play and makes him have to make plays in space.\u00a0 Additionally, Green Bay has been insistent on using shotgun formations in short-yardage and goal-line situations.\u00a0 This, again, takes away the ability of Dillon to get downhill.<\/p>\n With Aaron Jones kicking off his seventh season as a 28-year-old Running Back, A.J. Dillon is the next face of the backfield.\u00a0 He was the plan for the future.\u00a0 Dillon is the reason Williams was allowed to walk without even an offer.\u00a0 Now, the Packers are sitting with Patrick Taylor<\/a> and Emanuel Wilson<\/a> waiting in the wings.<\/p>\n In a contract year, this is the make-it-or-break-it season for Dillon.\u00a0 His continuing regression makes it incredibly likely the Packers will have to completely rebuild the running back room before the 2024 season.\u00a0 If the Packers are going to try to be competitive in the running game, A.J. Dillon is not the answer.<\/p>\n Universal Responsible Gambling Disclaimer:<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n Ages 21+. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n Main Photo <\/span>Glasheen\/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin \/ USA TODAY NETWORK<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A.J. Dillon continues to regress. With diminishing production and increasing workload, A.J. Dillon is not the answer long term.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1726,"featured_media":147654,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[25,54],"tags":[6221,61,44,40],"class_list":["post-147458","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-packers","category-editorials","tag-a-j-dillon","tag-football","tag-green-bay-packers","tag-nfl"],"modified_by":"Mike Kashuba","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147458","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=147458"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147458\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/147654"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=147458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=147458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=147458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}A.J. Dillon is Not the Answer<\/h2>\n
The Grind<\/h3>\n
Performance<\/h3>\n
Dillon Is Not the Future<\/h4>\n