After Spending Season on IR, AJ Dillon Talks About What’s Next
GREEN BAY, Wis. – Green Bay Packers running back AJ Dillon, who spent the season on injured reserve and will be a free agent this offseason, intends to play again next season.
“I’ll be good to go next year,” Dillon said on Monday, a day after a 22-10 wild-card loss to the Philadelphia Eagles.
Dillon missed the final three games of the 2023 season with a stinger, then suffered another during a joint practice in Denver during training camp.
“It’s human nature,” he said at the time, to worry about his career.
After getting second opinions on the injury, though, Dillon intends to keep playing. He worked out with the team throughout the season and looked in tip-top shape as he and his teammates packed up their belongings for the offseason.
Here’s what he had to say during the final minutes of the final locker room session of the season.
What’s next for you?
Year 6. Go work. Go work out. And, you know, I’ve been doing that. Just put myself in the best position to go play.
At the time, when they shut you down for the year, that’s a little unusual and I know I thought, “Is he done?” But no issues and you’re good to go?
Yeah, I’ll be good to go next year, and it’s up to my agents to go out there and go get that done. But that’s natural. I understand everybody’s got their opinions, but I kind of just focus on myself.
The silver lining, I guess, if you’re looking for one – it’s hard to find one and not being able to play – but I was able to have a lot of family time this year, watching my son grow up, which was pretty cool. I really wouldn’t be around for that, obviously.
And I got to get back healthy and still was in here, still was able to work out and everything – I’m going to go work out after this – and get myself back in the best shape possible. I felt like I was going into last year. And so, see if I can top that and continue to go.
When did you feel, for lack of a better term, good again?
I don’t know. I probably wouldn’t put a timetable on it, but I was in here working out, I was still working to stay in shape. You don’t want to fall all the way off. I’ve been around trying to attack each day, and I’m real confident in being able to be back next year. It’s going to be awesome as a running back trying to go into Year 6. It’s pretty sick.
What do you have to prove to people? Is the tape enough?
I don’t need to prove anything to anybody. I think my tape speaks for itself. There’s going to be people who want me on their team, who don’t want me on their team. That’s free agency and the nature of the NFL.
It’s not really about proving. I can do everything on the football field. So, I really think it’s just about getting there, getting wherever it is, and getting back here, whatever it is, whatever team it is, and just going out there and playing ball. I play ball, I play football. So, the best thing I can do for me is just go ahead and get in shape and get ready to go.
You talked last offseason and during training camp and being in great shape. Stupid question here, but how disappointing was it, after busting your butt, and then it just gets taken away?
Yeah, I mean the reality is I obviously love this team and I just love everything about playing the game of football. So, not being able to play after you really push yourself, it sucks, for lack of a better word. It’s bittersweet not having the team and all the guys who were able to go out there and bust their butt every single day and not get to their ultimate goal of the Super Bowl.
But, you know, that’s football, that’s life, and I think you can learn something from everything. You can learn something from a loss. You can learn something from spending the year on IR. And, with that, what I learned is just cherishing those opportunities, not taking the game for granted and how much a blessing it is to even go out there and talk about going into Year 6.
I’ve had so many great years in football and some really great teams and some great lifelong friends. So, I really just look at everything in an optimistic mindset. I’m grateful to have this opportunity to continue to play the game that I love. So, I’m going to put myself in the best position possible to continue doing that.
You’re a Wisconsin guy. It’s like you lived here your whole life.
My whole adult life.
So, do you want to come back? Do you think there’s a place for you here?
It’s not up to me to really determine where my place is. That’s the reality of the NFL. If it comes down to decision-making time, we’ll figure that out.
But I love that I’ve got great friends here. Wisconsin has given so much to me, and Wisconsin’s the place I try to give so much back to with my foundation, with everything that I do, and I don’t think that’s changing anytime soon. We’ve got great friends and family, great businesses and great relationships that we’ve built from Green Bay to Door County, down to Milwaukee and Madison. So, that’s something that will continue, regardless.
I always say that regardless of football, that it’s just a caveat of why I’m here. But the Packers organization has given me great opportunities. So, as far as next year, next steps, that’s kind of beyond me until it gets to that point. But I’m doing everything I can to be in the best shape and be ready to go and be the best I’ve been yet.
Latest Green Bay Packers News
MarShawn Lloyd excited about 2025 | Who’s back and who’s not? | Keisean Nixon breaks news | Packers-Eagles report card | Several key injuries in painful defeat | Packers can build around these three things | Same old story for Matt LaFleur’s Packers | Keys to game, player of game, play of game | Jordan Love’s dismal finale | Packers waste another season with loss to Eagles | Five positions to upgrade this offseason | Eagles 22, Packers 10 | Scouts on Packers-Eagles | Xavier McKinney named All-Pro | The biggest problem for the Packers | NFL playoffs, from youngest to oldest | Packers remain historically young