It’s still too early for the Packers to worry too much about their backup running back situation as Week 3 of the NFL season has just begun.
The Packers could rely on A.J., though Aaron Jones is listed as questionable with a hamstring injury once more.
For the second week in a row, Dillon will start. And Dillon has been a different kind of dubious this season; while he has been healthy, his play has been subpar.
Dillon has had trouble.
In Week 2, Dillon started in place of Jones after only gaining 19 yards in the season opener.
Against Atlanta, he gained 55 yards on 15 carries.
His season total increased to 74 yards on 28 carries, giving him a middling average of just 2 point 6 yards per rush.
Dillon might be able to change the situation.
However, that is becoming less and less likely given how poorly he performed the previous season, when he totaled 770 yards and averaged 4 points and 1 yard on each attempt.
The very good Packers newsletter “The Leap” suggests a few players Green Bay could pursue to replace Dillon in light of this and the fact that the Packers are treading carefully between trying to make the playoffs this year and bringing in young players for the future.
One name stands out: the underutilized Bengals rookie Chase Brown, a star running back for Illinois in college who would fit all the Packers’ criteria for a new running back (talent, youth, potential availability): “A young back like the Cincinnati Bengals’ Chase Brown might pique Green Bay’s interest.
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Medium-Range Option by Chase Brown.
Writer Jason Hirschhorn proposes three different tiers when describing possible targets for the Packers: buy-low targets, medium-range options with cap-friendly contracts, and go-big-or-go-home targets.
Eliminate Cam Akers, a former Rams running back who was recently traded to Minnesota and is on the buy-low list. Then there is 49ers Elijah Mitchell, who did not play a single snap in Week 2 in support of Christian McCaffrey.
Mitchell received 14 touches in the 49ers’ victory over the Giants on Thursday, and San Francisco made it clear how much they value him.
Mark him down.
Additionally, there is the potential for the Packers’ alleged interest in Jonathan Taylor to resurface.
But there has been much debate about that, and it appears that the Colts wanted Christian Watson in exchange, which Green Bay refused to provide.
The Dolphins’ Salvon Ahmed and the Giants’ Matt Breida are intriguing buy-low candidates, but Breida is 28 and Ahmed has a good reputation in Miami.
However, Brown is particularly intriguing.
He has only played one offensive snap for the Bengals in two games, and they don’t seem to have a place for him.
Hirschhorn also notes that the Packers have depth at the offensive line (at least when David Bakhtiari and Elgton Jenkins are healthy), and the Bengals need help there.
“If the Bengals, a team that believes it can win a Super Bowl this season, don’t plan to use Brown much in 2023, perhaps they would consider trading him for a player who can,” Hirschhorn wrote.
The Packers’ offensive line depth may be able to help Cincinnati more now than Brown, it seems.
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Is Brown More Than Just a Speed Back?
Brown was the fifth-fastest running back at the NFL Combine this year, clocking in at a 40-yard dash time of 4 minutes, 43 seconds.
The Packers have placed a premium on positional speed.
As a senior in his fifth year at Illinois, he ran for 1,643 yards, good for fourth in the country.
According to NFL.com, one of Brown’s pre-draft drawbacks was that he does not run with a lot of shiftiness or power: “Very average power through first contact,” and “Tends to be a one-speed runner.”.
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However, if Brown can be had cheaply, he might be the type of running back the Packers could use to replace Jones when he needs a break—a straightforward, one-cut runner with significant speed.
Despite the fact that Dillon hasn’t been particularly strong this season when given the ball and doesn’t have Brown’s speed, Brown may not have a lot of power-running in his game.
Dillon may yet turn things around.
For the Packers, at least in the near future, that would be the ideal result. But if not, betting on a player like Brown might be a smart move.