Josh Jacobs' groin injury has fantasy world buying Marshawn Lloyd

Josh Jacobs signed a 4-year, $48 million deal with the Packers back in 2024 and immediately became the workhorse Green Bay had been missing since it let Aaron Jones walk. He's been the guy. But training camp has thrown a wrinkle into that plan: Jacobs has a groin injury, and instead of practicing in pads he's been working alongside a rehab trainer.

SleeperNFL later confirmed the specific injury: a groin issue for Jacobs, the kind of soft-tissue niggle that teams love to call precautionary in August and hate to see linger into September. It's not being treated as a long-term concern, but any missed camp reps for a bell-cow back are enough to get fantasy analysts buzzing about the guy standing behind him on the depth chart.

That guy is Marshawn Lloyd, and his path back to relevance has been rocky. The Packers took him in the third round of the 2024 draft, and he proceeded to miss the entire 2025 season, first with a hamstring injury suffered in preseason, then a calf issue that popped up during rehab. He's entering year 3 with all of one career regular-season appearance to his name. That's the kind of resume that usually gets you buried on waiver wires, not hyped up.

Enter Hayden Winks, the fantasy analyst who's been banging the Lloyd drum even before the injury news broke. He flagged Lloyd as a legit talent worth rostering in deeper leagues, calling him a "clear RB2 on a productive offense" if he can just stay on the field.

Once word got out that Jacobs was working with a trainer instead of practicing, Winks doubled down, and by the time Yahoo Fantasy Football's Josh & Hayden show rolled cameras, he was ready to put a number on it: Lloyd is his second-favorite handcuff in the entire league.

None of this means Jacobs is going anywhere. The injury isn't being described as serious, and a healthy Jacobs is still the clear lead back in a Green Bay offense that leaned on the run all last year. But handcuff value is built exactly in moments like this — a groin tweak in camp, a talented backup with something to prove, and an analyst willing to say the quiet part out loud. If Jacobs' groin lingers even a little into the regular season, Lloyd's redraft stock isn't just rising, it's already risen.