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Rob Demovsky, ESPN Staff WriterNov 15, 2024, 04:23 PM ET
- Rob Demovsky is an NFL reporter at ESPN and covers the Green Bay Packers. He has covered the Packers since 1997 and joined ESPN in 2013. Demovsky is a two-time Wisconsin Sportswriter of the Year as selected by the NSSA. You can follow him on Twitter at @RobDemovsky.
GREEN BAY, Wis. — Just when he was about to return to the Green Bay Packers‘ active roster, rookie running back MarShawn Lloyd was diagnosed with appendicitis and was expected to undergo an emergency appendectomy Friday.
Packers coach Matt LaFleur said Lloyd contacted the Packers training staff about abdominal pain earlier in the day. The third-round pick has appeared in only one game this season, as a backup — against the Indianapolis Colts in Week 2, when he sustained an ankle injury that landed him on injured reserve.
The Packers designated him to return and opened his 21-day practice window this week. However, when the injury report came out Wednesday, Lloyd also was listed with a hamstring injury. Even so, LaFleur said Thursday that Lloyd was on track to fill the open spot the Packers have on their 53-man roster.
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“You can’t make this stuff up,” LaFleur said Friday. “Unfortunately, he had appendicitis. It’s a shame because he was making progress. But he’ll rebound. I’m confident in that. That’s what I told him. But it is a shame, certainly.”
Lloyd also missed parts of the preseason because of hip and hamstring injuries. In 2022, Packers left tackle David Bakhtiari underwent an appendectomy and missed three weeks. Because Lloyd’s recovery is likely to follow a similar timeline, the Packers might have to put him back on injured reserve.
They would first have to temporarily add him to the roster for a day. A player can be activated twice off IR in the same season, but it counts as two of the eight allowable IR activations teams can make in one season.
However, the Packers also plan to talk to the NFL about whether a player who is in the middle of his 21-day practice window before he’s added to the roster could be placed on the non-football injury list.
The Packers’ running game has produced just fine without Lloyd. Behind Josh Jacobs, Green Bay entered the week fifth in the NFL in rushing offense.
However, the Packers were looking for ways to work Lloyd back into the game plan.
“I can’t wait to get him back in the fold,” offensive coordinator Adam Stenavich said Thursday. “Obviously, with the bye week you go back and self-scout, watch all the old film that you had from the year, and the one game that he played, you just saw his explosive potential, his quickness, his receiving ability, very good player. He’s working through some stuff and he’s trying to get back as fast as he can, but at the same time we’ve just got to make sure we’re smart with it and everything. But yeah, he’s working, and I’m looking forward to getting him back very soon.”
