Which Running Backs Might Be Off Packers’ NFL Draft Board?

Looking beyond 2022, running back is a need for the Green Bay Packers. Which backs may not be a consideration in the upcoming NFL Draft?

Bill Huber | Apr 6, 2022

GREEN BAY, Wis. – On any list of the Green Bay Packers’ draft needs, running back would rank toward the bottom.

Of course, the draft isn’t only about filling immediate needs. It’s about thinking ahead to address future needs. For Green Bay, there’s a decent chance this will be Aaron Jones’ final season under contract. In 2023, his cap charge will inch past $20 million. The Packers could release him to save almost $10.5 million.

Combined with last year’s seventh-round pick, Kylin Hill, coming off a torn ACL, the Packers might be shopping for a back in Day 3.

During the 16 drafts conducted by Ted Thompson and Brian Gutekunst, the Packers have selected 12 running backs. Or make it 13 if you include Ty Montgomery, who was drafted to play receiver but made his mark at running back.

Jones was the shortest at 5-foot-9 1/8. Missouri’s Tyler Badie (5-8), Mississippi’s Jerrion Ealy (5-8 1/8), Texas-San Antonio’s Sincere McCormick (5-8 1/2), Fresno State’s Ronnie Rivers (5-7 1/2) and Oregon’s C.J. Verdell (5-7 3/4) are the backs who measured less than 5-foot-9 at the Scouting Combine.

Hand size is a big deal in a cold climate. Every back drafted by the Packers had hands larger than 9 inches with the exception of Devante Mays. Oklahoma’s Kennedy Brooks (7 5/8), Ealy (8 1/2), Baylor’s Trestan Ebner (8 1/2), Rivers (8 1/2), Baylor’s Abram Smith (8 1/4), Texas A&M’s Isaiah Spiller (8 5/8) and Georgia’s Zamir White (8 1/2) have hands smaller than 9 inches. White, Spiller and Smith all could go off the board in Day 2.

Interestingly, the team has not been beholden to testing numbers. Relative Athletic Score compares a player’s testing results against their position group and places them on a 0-to-10 scale. Jones (9.21) and his backfield tag-team partner, AJ Dillon (9.16), were superb testers. Eddie Lacy (4.58) and Jamaal Williams (4.55)? Not so much.

The burly Lacy ran the slowest 40 (4.64). At just 194 pounds, Notre Dame’s Kyren Williams ran his 40 in 4.65 seconds. At 217 pounds, Spiller ran his 40 in 4.64 and was mediocre in other testing. At 206 pounds, South Carolina’s ZaQuandre White ran his 40 in 4.63 and performed poorly in most of the other athletic tests.

Mays’ 20-yard shuttle time of 4.53 seconds was one-tenth of a second worse than any of Green Bay’s other picks during the Thompson-Gutekunst era. Alabama’s Brian Robinson completed his shuttle in 4.59, worst among the draft-worthy backs. Ebner’s 4.53 probably wasn’t good enough, either.

Bill Huber, who has covered the Green Bay Packers since 2008, is the publisher of Packers On SI, a Sports Illustrated channel. E-mail: packwriter2002@yahoo.com History: Huber took over Packer Central in August 2019. Twitter: https://twitter.com/BillHuberNFL Background: Huber graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, where he played on the football team, in 1995. He worked in newspapers in Reedsburg, Wisconsin Dells and Shawano before working at The Green Bay News-Chronicle and Green Bay Press-Gazette from 1998 through 2008. With The News-Chronicle, he won several awards for his commentaries and page design. In 2008, he took over as editor of Packer Report Magazine, which was founded by Hall of Fame linebacker Ray Nitschke, and PackerReport.com. In 2019, he took over the new Sports Illustrated site Packer Central, which he has grown into one of the largest sites in the Sports Illustrated Media Group.

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