The Green Bay Packers are headed into 2026 with a very different look in the backfield, and the change starts with the absence of Josh Jacobs.
Jacobs was placed on the commissioner’s exempt list on Sunday after being formally charged with two misdemeanors tied to an alleged domestic violence incident from the spring of 2025. For now, he is not on the Packers’ 53-man roster and cannot practice with the team or attend games.
He will still be paid, and he can be around the facility for meetings, workouts and medical treatments if the Packers permit it. The NFL is also reviewing the case and could hand down a suspension.
That leaves Green Bay to lean on MarShawn Lloyd, the former third-round pick who is set to open the season as the RB1. The Packers also sent a 2028 sixth-round pick to the Pittsburgh Steelers to land Kaleb Johnson, a 2025 third-round pick, and he should get a shot to settle in as the RB2 next to Chris Brooks.
It’s a shaky setup, because Lloyd is still largely untested. He has flashed real talent, including this preseason, but the résumé is thin: just ten real NFL snaps across two seasons because of injuries. Over that stretch, he’s dealt with hamstring, hip, ankle, groin and calf issues, along with appendicitis.
When he’s been available, though, Lloyd has shown the kind of juice that can change a game in a hurry. He’s shifty, fast and dangerous in space, and Green Bay clearly believes he can be a big part of what it’s trying to build heading into Week 1 against the Minnesota Vikings.
That’s where Johnson comes in. If Lloyd is the lightning, Johnson is the thunder.
The former Iowa Hawkeyes standout brings size at 6-foot-1 and 224 pounds, plus the kind of straight-line burst, tackle-breaking ability and yards-after-contact production that made him so effective in college. In 2024 at Iowa, Johnson carried the ball 240 times for 1,537 yards and 21 touchdowns.
The question is whether that game translates to the NFL. In Pittsburgh as a rookie, it didn’t. Still, Green Bay is clearly betting that the combination of Lloyd’s speed and Johnson’s power can give it a backfield that works.
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