The Packers’ ground game is in rough shape, and Emanuel Wilson is making Green Bay’s offseason choice look worse by the week.
Wilson is now with the reigning Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks after the Packers let him walk this offseason, and the move seemed fairly routine at the time. He had been a rotational back, not a headline player. But with Green Bay struggling badly on the ground and Wilson showing he can handle real volume, the decision is starting to stand out for all the wrong reasons.
Through Week 2, excluding Monday Night Football, the Packers sit near the bottom of the league in several major rushing categories. They rank 32nd in rushing yards per game at 64.5, 31st in expected points added per rush at -0.435, 29th in yards per carry at 3.3, and 25th in designed rushing success rate at 41 percent.
That’s not the profile of an offense comfortably moving on from a dependable veteran back.
Wilson gave Seattle exactly the kind of outing Green Bay could use in the Seahawks’ 31-7 win over the Arizona Cardinals. He stepped in for rookie starter Jadarian Price, who left in the fourth quarter with a shoulder issue, and handled the load without blinking. Wilson rushed for 92 yards on 21 carries and didn’t score, but he looked like a back capable of taking on a heavy workload.
He also finished second among all running backs in missed tackles forced in Week 2 with six. Among 74 backs, his 12.5 percent explosive run rate ranked 18th, and his 2.14 yards after contact per attempt ranked 26th.
Seattle got him on a one-year, $1.6 million deal, which only makes the Packers’ choice look more questionable in hindsight. Green Bay saw the price, looked at its depth chart, and still moved on. Wilson’s familiarity with the offense and his track record as a producer feel especially important now, especially with Kaleb Johnson carrying a similar cap hit.
The Packers also didn’t anticipate losing Josh Jacobs for much of the season. His off-field situation, tied to an alleged domestic violence incident in May, came after Wilson had already joined Seattle and made the backfield picture even messier.
But the uncertainty around MarShawn Lloyd wasn’t new. The Packers had reasons to worry about him in March, and those concerns still haven’t gone away in September.
The 2024 third-round pick has spent much of his first two NFL seasons dealing with injuries, to the point that he reportedly spent “months” at a rehabilitation institute. Entering Year 3, he had only seven total touches.
Chris Brooks also wasn’t the answer as a true replacement for Wilson. Since arriving with the Miami Dolphins as an undrafted free agent in 2023, he has never topped 36 carries in a season. His value has come on special teams and in passing situations, not as a back who brings the same experience or burst Wilson offers.
What looked like a harmless departure in the spring is now looking like a mistake in September.
In Other News...
Packers Fans Got Caught In Foxs Most Infuriating Broadcast Mess
Fox Sports turned a busy Week 2 Sunday into a strange viewing experience for fans following the Packers and the rest of the early slate, as audio feeds did not match the games on screen for multiple contests. For Green Bay viewers in particular, the problems were compounded when the network briefly lost its scorebug during overtime of the Packers-Jets game, adding another layer of confusion to a broadcast day that was already off the rails.
The network did get the audio issues corrected before the primetime Cowboys-Commanders matchup, but the afternoon left plenty of viewers wondering how so many technical glitches lined up on the same broadcast window. Even by NFL TV standards, it was the kind of mess that overshadowed the football for a while, and Packers fans had every reason to feel caught in the middle of it. [Read more 🡒]
Packers Nearly Faced A Wild In-Game Fix During Jets Win
In a game that was already tight all afternoon, the Packers got pushed to the edge up front when injuries thinned out their offensive line against the Jets. The situation got so thin that the staff had to consider a wildly unconventional fix, with Tucker Kraft even in the conversation as a possible emergency option at tackle while the group tried to hold together.
Jacob Monk ultimately got the green light to play, which kept Kraft where Green Bay needed him most, and the Packers were able to lean on rookies Jager Burton and Anthony Belton to help steady the line. It was the kind of survival-day football that can decide a September win, and Green Bay barely got through it with a 20-17 victory. [Read more 🡒]
Two Packers Drew NFL Discipline After The Vikings Game
The Packers latest trip through the rivalry with Minnesota carried the usual physical edge, and the league office noticed. Green Bay came away with a pair of fines tied to actions from that game, with linebacker Lukas Van Ness and safety Evan Williams both cited for plays the NFL judged to be over the line.
Van Ness was fined for a hit to the head or neck area of a quarterback, while Williams was penalized for unnecessary roughness on a defenseless player. The dollars from those fines will be funneled to the Professional Athletes Foundation and the NFL Foundation, which use the money to support athlete health and wellness programs. [Read more 🡒]