Tag: A.J. Dillon

AJ Dillon’s availability for Sunday’s game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers is in jeopardy after he missed his second straight practice with a thumb injury.

Dillon suffered the thumb injury on the Packers final drive against the New York Giants. At his locker on Thursday, Dillon was wearing a brace and did confirm the thumb is broken, according to Tom Silverstein.

“I got hit,” said Dillon. “Just a routine play, football, that’s how it goes. Got hit with a helmet, lined up the right way, hit it just right enough, whatever, we called another run play after that.

“We’re just taking it day by day. Just trying to see how I’m feeling as it’s going, stuff like that moving forward.”

Along with Dillon’s status being up in the air, Aaron Jones is still working his way back from an MCL sprain. Jones was a limited participant in all three practices last week and was listed as questionable before being inactive for Monday’s game. He has practiced in a limited capacity both days this week.

“We’ll see,” said Matt LaFleur about Jones’ availability. “That’s something we are working through. I know it’s a little bit more challenging working through that considering how we practiced today. We did have did have a 15-minute individual and the rest was more jog through. I think we will have a bette indication tomorrow as we have our normal Friday practice and where we are at.”

Even if Jones is available for Sunday’s game, we don’t know what his workload will look like in his first game back from injury. The same goes for Dillon as he navigates a broken thumb. Given the injuries that Jones and Dillon are both working through, as of now, it looks like Patrick Taylor will have a larger role and possibly Kenyan Drake as well.

Taylor has been used often the last three games as a pass-blocker or a pass-catcher out of the backfield, totaling 79 snaps during that span. On the ground, he has nine carries for 70 yards and three receptions for 26 yards.

“Every week is the same,” said Taylor at his locker. “I’ve preparing like a starter since Week 1 when I was on practice squad here. So I continue to prepare the same way I do every week.”

Drake was just added to the practice squad last week and was elevated for the game against the Giants to provide depth as the third running back option. He did not see any snaps on offense.

“We got confidence in those guys,” said LaFleur about Taylor and Drake. “Obviously Kenyan is relatively new to our system, but he’s a pro. He’s handled himself accordingly since the day he got here. He’s put in the time. I think he’s got a pretty good understanding. He’s been around a lot of ball. I think it’s easier to acclimate in a timely fashion for guys that have been around a lot of different places. I’ve got not reservations about him.”

An improved run game has been a key contributor to the Packers overall success on offense as of late. From Weeks 3 through 8, Green Bay as a team was averaging only 4.1 yards per carry. From Weeks 9 through 13, that figured jumped to 4.7, with Dillon being one of the catalysts behind it.

When the run game is working, every other play and aspect of the offense benefits. It keeps the offense ahead of the sticks and out of predictable passing situations. It sets up play-action and opportunities downfield, where not coincidentally, Jordan Love has been much more effective, and takes away some of the bite from the pass-rush, helping out the offensive line.

Regardless of who is at running back for the Packers on Sunday, they face the difficult challenge of taking on a stout Tampa Bay run defense. Led by their front-seven, the Bucs are allowing only 3.9 yards per carry this season. Struggling to move the ball on the ground and becoming one-dimensional against an aggressive and blitz-heavy defense won’t be part of the recipe for success.

“They run,” said Taylor of the Bucs’ front. “They’re big. Vita Vea is a stump in the middle. (Lavonte) David, he’s downhill. Devin White, he’s downhill. Their entire defense is a fast flowing defense and they create turnovers.”

Green Bay Packers running back AJ Dillon was one of the few bright spots on offense during a disappointing 19-17 loss to the Denver Broncos in Week 7. Dillon rushed for 61 yards on 4.1 yards per carry and added 34 receiving yards on two receptions. His 95 yards from scrimmage were by far his most in 2023.

More times than not, Dillon looked like the power back the team expected him to be, which hadn’t necessarily been the case through the first six games. On Sunday, he used his 247-pound frame to run through arm tackles and punish Denver defenders trying to tackle him. According to Pro Football Focus, Dillon forced four missed tackles and generated 60 yards after contact, both marking new season highs.

By far Dillon’s best game of the season. pic.twitter.com/eVDd91Q1Oh

— Brandon Carwile (@PackerScribe) October 23, 2023

Prior to their trip to Denver, Green Bay’s ground game was practically nonexistent. The backfield was severely hampered by Aaron Jones’ hamstring injury from Weeks 2-5, which forced Dillon to be the primary ball carrier. Unfortunately, he failed to produce like one.

During that four-game stretch, Dillon amassed just 175 rushing yards on 51 carries (3.4 YPC). He also caught just one pass for eight yards.

Coming out of the bye week, the Packers desperately needed Jones to get healthy to take some pressure off Jordan Love and the wide receivers. Unsurprisingly, the Broncos’ porous run defense proved to be a worthy remedy. Green Bay had their largest rushing output of the season with 137 yards, but it was Dillon who led the way. Jones added 35 rushing yards of his own on eight carries and 22 receiving yards on three receptions. The outcome may have been different if the offense utilized Jones more early on.

Nevertheless, the Packers still had a chance to win at the end. With just over three minutes remaining, Dillon led the team into Denver territory with a 29-yard catch-and-run that saw him break a tackle from linebacker Alex Singleton before being brought down by multiple Broncos defenders at their 44-yard line. Dillon was handed the ball again the next play but managed only to get back to the line of scrimmage when a rushing lane never opened up.

Green Bay likely needed one more first down or maybe even 7-8 yards to give kicker Anders Carlson a shot at a game-winning field goal. However, after Dillon was stopped for no gain, left guard Elgton Jenkins was called for a holding penalty, putting the offense into an undesirable 2nd-and-20.

Jordan Love then tried to force the issue with back-to-back passes downfield, the latter of which was a bomb to Samori Toure that fell into the hands of safety PJ Locke. On the game-ending interception, Dillon was open underneath with room to run but was probably one of the last options for Love to throw to.

After the game, Dillon was still optimistic despite having his best performance of the year thwarted by missed opportunities and poor execution.

“I think we have a lot of talent, and looking around the locker room, there are so many playmakers, and so there’s a lot of guys playing with high effort,” he said. “It’s just one of those things where it’s going to click.

“It’s still so early in the season, so nobody’s pressing the panic button. I’m definitely not pressing that panic button.”

To Dillon’s point, even though Green Bay is sitting at 2-4, there are still 11 games left in the season. That’s plenty of time to right the ship, but there is very little optimism around an offense that was held scoreless in the first half and scored only 17 points against a bad Denver defense, allowing over 30 points per game. Perhaps they can lean on Dillon and Jones for more offense, but the duo will have to produce against much tougher defenses moving forward.