Green Bay Packers State of the Roster: Offensive Backfield

If AJ Dillon doesn’t re-sign with the Packers, who will share carries with starter Aaron Jones in 2024?

With the offseason cycle in full force, we at Acme Packing Company decided that now is the perfect time to review the state of the Green Bay Packers’ 2024 roster before everyone’s eyes turn to the NFL Draft in late February with the scouting combine. Below is our expected content schedule for this project.

• 2/13: Offensive backfield
• 2/14: Pass-catchers
• 2/15: Offensive line
• 2/16: Defensive tackles
• 2/19: Defensive ends
• 2/20: Linebackers
• 2/21: Cornerbacks
• 2/22: Safeties
• 2/23: Specialists

So let’s talk about the 2024 Packers’ offensive backfield, including one major hole on their depth chart, as it stands today. If you disagree or want to add anything to our positional analysis, go ahead and drop a line down in the comment section below.

Quarterback

Under contract: Jordan Love, Sean Clifford and Alex McGough

The only drama at the quarterback position for the Packers this offseason is a question of just how much starter Jordan Love is going to get paid. From the Chargers game on, Love — who was in his first season as a full-time starter — managed to record 23 touchdown passes and just three interceptions during that 10-game span. Pretty good!

The Packers also managed to successfully avoid starting rookie Sean Clifford in 2023. Roughly half of the league, on average, ends up starting a backup quarterback throughout the course of an NFL season.

Green Bay, in fact, hasn’t started a rookie passer since 1987. The next longest streak by a team? The Seattle Seahawks, who haven’t started a rookie quarterback in just over a decade. Amazing. The oldest Packer on the roster, tackle David Bakhtiari, was four years from being born when Don Majkowski made his rookie starts.

Green Bay could add some competition to the backup (or reserve) quarterback job, but I wouldn’t expect it to come before Day 3 of April’s draft. The team is not yet in a financial place to spend on an experienced veteran backup, and pushing Clifford and/or reserve/futures contract player Alex McGough isn’t high up on that priority list.

If you want a list of names to keep an eye on at the position, the players expected to go on Day 3 of the draft, per the consensus draft board, are Florida State’s Jordan Travis, Tennessee’s Joe Milton, Maryland’s Taulia Tagovailoa, Notre Dame’s Sam Hartman, Western Kentucky’s Austin Reed and Kentucky’s Devin Leary. Yes, Taulia is Tua’s brother.

Running back

Under contract: Aaron Jones, Emanuel Wilson and Ellis Merriweather

Free agents: AJ Dillon and Patrick Taylor (RFA)

This is a big one. Outside of the offensive line, the biggest concern on the offensive side of the ball this offseason is who will be splitting time with starter Aaron Jones, who missed six regular season games with hamstring and knee injuries but also ended his 2023 campaign with five-straight 100-yard rushing performances.

Despite the $17 million cap hit that is currently on the Packers’ books for Jones’ 2024 season, general manager Brian Gutekunst talked about how Jones is the heartbeat of the team in his end-of-the-year press conference. Assume that Jones’ cap charge is going to drop a bit, via one method or another, but he should return to the squad next year.

The question mark comes at the RB2 spot, as AJ Dillion is set to become a free agent. Head coach Matt LaFleur said that he hopes that Dillon will return to the team next year, though, Dillon will almost certainly test the open market. Over the last three seasons, Dillon has recorded 551 carries for 2,186 yards and 14 touchdowns to go along with 84 receptions for 742 yards and two more scores. If Dillon signs elsewhere, look for the Packers to be in the running back market, either via free agency or the draft.

Patrick Taylor, who was signed off of the New England Patriots’ practice squad following Jones and Emanuel Wilson’s injuries this past season, will be a restricted free agent in 2024. What that means is that the Packers can ensure that Taylor doesn’t hit the open market in March, but it would come at the cost of a right of first refusal tender that would pay Taylor $2.4 million. Considering that Taylor, who mostly played pass protection snaps, split time with Wilson in that RB3 role for most of the season, don’t expect Green Bay to pull the trigger on that deal. Maybe Taylor will return to the team on a cheaper contract after he’s allowed to hit unrestricted free agency, though, like tight end Tyler Davis did in 2023.

Wilson should provide depth, but there has been no indication that the Packers think enough of him to have him be truly involved in the rotation. On the year, he carried the ball a total of 14 times for 85 yards. Ellis Merriweather was a mid-season free agent pick-up to the practice squad and signed a reserve/futures deal with Green Bay for 2024.

Fullback

Under contract: Henry Pearson

Free agent: Josiah Deguara

If Josiah Deguara does return to the Packers next season, it should be fully expected that he’ll have to sign something close to the league minimum. Since 2021, Deguara’s offensive playing time has dropped each season, relegating him to a special teams role in non-blowouts. The fact that the Packers had three rookie tight ends on the roster in Luke Musgrave, Tucker Kraft and Ben Sims certainly hurts his chances of making the team next year. On top of that, there still is the potential for veteran Tyler Davis, who is a special teams ace, to re-sign with Green Bay after inking a one-year deal with the Packers last offseason. Davis was injured in the preseason and spent the entire regular season on the injured reserve.

Despite never officially being elevated to the 53-man roster, rookie Henry Pearson did play for the Packers in 2023, recording 11 offensive snaps and 23 special teams reps over two regular season games. Pearson worked in heavily with the first-team special teams units during the preseason, so it shouldn’t have been surprising that he’s viewed as one of the squad’s premier practice squad options. He recently signed a reserve/futures contract with the green and gold.