Packers add Kaleb Johnson to crowded backfield mix
Green Bay's backfield picture got busier this week as Kaleb Johnson joined MarShawn Lloyd and Chris Brooks in a job battle shaped by Josh Jacobs' ongoing legal case.
Kaleb Johnson lands in a backfield picture that just got real
Green Bay's backfield got another face on August 30, when the Steelers sent 2025 third-round pick Kaleb Johnson to the Packers for a 2028 sixth-round pick, per ESPN's Jeremy Fowler. Johnson's rookie year was a lost one — 28 carries for 69 yards — and he traces the stall to a single moment, a muffed kickoff Seattle returned for a touchdown in Week 2. "I just feel like, at first, it was my mental errors that really killed it for me," he told Steelers Now. "I feel like that kickoff killed me, and I just feel like, from there on, it was just downhill from there." He wasn't sentimental walking out the door, either: "I give all respect to the Steelers for giving me a chance and drafting me. But, it's Go Pack, go now, so let's go."
MarShawn Lloyd: I'm ready for anything the Packers give me. t.co/LVn4uzrExS
The job he's chasing already has an answer for now. With Josh Jacobs on the Commissioner's Exempt List and unable to practice, MarShawn Lloyd — a former third-rounder whose Packers career has mostly been injury reports — is set to be the starter when Green Bay opens the season. "I'm ready for anything the Packers give me," Lloyd told reporters this week, sounding like a man who has heard the doubts about his health before. Chris Brooks stays in the mix as the pass-protection option behind him, with Johnson expected to work in gradually as he gets up to speed.
Jacobs' side of this is no longer a background detail, either. His first court appearance on battery and criminal-destruction-of-property charges has been moved up more than two months, to September 10, and general manager Brian Gutekunst has said the team still expects him to play for Green Bay at some point in 2026 — just not yet, and not while Lloyd is holding the job down.
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Green Bay closes preseason 2-1, and the last box score is finally in the books
The exhibition slate wrapped the way you'd script it. Green Bay trailed by 11 in the fourth quarter before rallying past Arizona 42-38 at Lambeau on August 29, closing 2-1 in the preseason after a 9-28 loss at Pittsburgh on August 13 and a 33-13 win at Denver on August 22. Matt LaFleur wasn't shy about it afterward, calling it "the most entertaining preseason game you've ever seen in your life."
Cardinals42-38
Broncos33-13
Steelers9-28J. Michael Sturdivant caught six of seven targets for 112 yards and a touchdown, and Kisean Johnson hauled in the walk-off score in the final minutes. "I kept telling myself, I gotta play in Lambeau. I don't care if I'm with the Packers or not. I gotta play in Lambeau," Johnson said afterward. Not everyone left with a highlight — Bo Melton went without a catch on his two targets.
The final numbers are in now, too. Jordan Love wrapped the preseason having completed 8 of 12 passes for 74 yards, a touchdown and no interceptions across two appearances, and Matthew Golden finished with one catch on one target for 19 yards over his two games — a light workload for the rookie, but none of it matters now. The preseason record goes in the books as 2-1 and nothing else follows it into September.
The new guys are settling in, and it's clearer now why Green Bay needed them
Cutdown day, August 30, was supposed to be arithmetic — get to 53, move on. Instead the Packers ran a teardown. Josh Jacobs landed on the Commissioner's Exempt List that morning, and within hours Green Bay had shipped breakout preseason quarterback Kyle McCord to Miami for a 2028 sixth-round pick and brought in tight end Mark Redman from the Rams for only a seventh. Redman found out the way most trades happen now: a phone call. "Heck, I almost started crying happy tears … it was pretty frickin cool to come out here and now be a part of this group of guys," Redman said, calling the deal, in Rams executive Les Snead's words, "a testament to Redman's play," per Matt Schneidman of The Athletic.
The new guys are settling in nicely to life at Lambeau t.co/OmB5pgA4XI
The room kept filling out from there. Long-snapper Scott Daly, cut loose by Tampa Bay, signed to Green Bay's practice squad, per Greg Auman, alongside quarterback Kedon Slovis — who had just played against the Packers for Arizona on August 29 — as part of 13 practice-squad signings the club announced that Monday. The Packers' own account caught the mood, posting that the new guys are settling in nicely to life at Lambeau.
The tight end room Redman walked into needed the reinforcement. Luke Musgrave remains out with a neck injury Gutekunst said Tuesday he's "really hopeful" clears at some point in 2026, per Ryan Wood of USA Today, and Thomas Yassmin reverted to injured reserve. The bright spot is Tucker Kraft, who appeared to be running without any limitations in Wednesday's practice as he works back from a knee injury, Matt Schneidman of The Athletic reports — right on schedule to be full-go for the opener.
Green Bay opens the season in Minnesota with history not exactly on its side
Green Bay heads into Sunday afternoon in Minnesota to open the regular season against a Vikings team that finished its own preseason 1-2, most recently falling 6-34 at Denver. The two clubs have a long history, with Green Bay holding the edge in the all-time series, though Minnesota has won three of the last four meetings, per Yahoo Sports — a wrinkle worth remembering walking into U.S. Bank Stadium. Micah Parsons won't be part of it; Gutekunst said this week the pass rusher is targeting a return once the team is out of its four-game PUP window, which puts Week 5 in play, not Week 1.
The number attached to it moved early: the line opened with Minnesota favored by 1.5 points, tight enough that Green Bay is the more talked-about underdog than most road teams get, and the total was set at 45.5, a middling number for a game with this many questions on both sides. It's not a get-right game so much as a first real look — at Lloyd carrying the backfield, at Kraft's knee, at whatever Minnesota is trying to be after its own rough finish to August.