The Green Bay Packers didn’t need a lot on offense this draft, as they feel good about the corps of receivers they have, as well as new running back Josh Jacobs pairing with incumbent A.J. Dillon. As such, they took just two fantasy-relevant players in the draft, and neither came before late on day two. Let’s take a look at their two picks, Marshawn Lloyd and Michael Pratt, and their 2024 fantasy football prospects!
FULL 2024 GREEN BAY PACKERS DRAFT RESULTS
| Rd | Pick | Player | Pos | College |
| 1 | 25 | Jordan Morgan | OT | Arizona |
| 2 | 45 | Edgerrin Cooper | LB | Texas A&M |
| 2 | 58 | Javon Bullard | S | Georgia |
| 3 | 88 | MarShawn Lloyd | RB | USC |
| 3 | 91 | Ty’Ron Hopper | LB | Missouri |
| 4 | 111 | Evan Williams | S | Oregon |
| 5 | 163 | Jacob Monk | OC | Duke |
| 5 | 169 | Kitan Oladapo | S | Oregon St |
| 6 | 202 | Travis Glover | OT | Georgia St |
| 7 | 245 | Michael Pratt | QB | Tulane |
| 7 | 255 | Kalen King | CB | Penn St |
Round 3, Pick 88: MarShawn Lloyd, Running Back, USC (5’9” 220 lbs)
Talent:
Lloyd is a fun back, especially because he’s a massively beefy guy with good speed (4.46 40, 8.92 RAS) who tries, successfully, to hit home runs at the college level. He’s a hard, high runner who still has good contact balance. He’s incredibly patient with good enough vision, allowing blocks to develop ahead of him. Unfortunately, despite his speed, he doesn’t have a great second gear. He invites contact and is hard to bring down, which gets him extra yards, but he doesn’t take it to the house as much as you’d like. He didn’t get a ton of targets at USC, mostly because of the offense they ran with Caleb Williams.
Some of his numbers at USC are skewed because a read option meant that Caleb Williams was leaving MarShawn Lloyd out to dry at the first sign that Caleb might get touched on the run. Overall, he’s fast, explosive, strong, decisive, and patient, and he destroys open space before carrying tacklers an extra yard. His only major red flag for fantasy production is his fumbles, as he tends to give the ball up (twice versus Utah).
NFL Comparison: Ray Rice to Dameon Pierce
2024 Opportunity:
Two things are true, and I am having a hard time rectifying them when I look at Lloyd’s opportunity: first, he is definitively better than A.J. Dillon, and he will have almost nothing even sniffing Dillon’s role with Aaron Jones around. While the Packers spent a pretty penny on Lloyd, it wasn’t to take away from new running back Josh Jacobs, who looks to be everything the Packers had in Aaron Jones, and more. That means that Lloyd’s rookie year likely peaks at A.J. Dillon’s career numbers: just under 10 carries per game (9.95). Without touchdowns, and without catching the ball, that doesn’t leave much room for opportunity.
2024 Fantasy Football Outlook:
Lloyd is the second-best running back on the Packers’ roster, and the best back will likely rarely come off the field unless there’s an injury. Lloyd is pretty much just a handcuff in 2024.
TALENT:
2024 OPPORTUNITY:
2024 OUTLOOK:
Round 7, Pick 245: Michael Pratt, Quarterback, Tulane (6’3” 217 lbs)
Talent:
The hardest thing I can say about Michael Pratt is that there isn’t anything unique about him. He throws the ball well enough to be considered an NFL-quality player, but he isn’t really special in any way. That is, he isn’t bringing a unique skill set to the NFL. He maps pretty closely somewhere between Sam Howell and Jake Browning for me. The thing that jumps off the screen for me is a complete lack of comfort with any sort of pressure at all. More than once I watched the guy use his sweaty footwork to abandon a perfectly clean pocket to gain a yard on second and long or third and long. Pratt also has one of the windiest and loopiest throwing motions that I’ve seen since before Brock Purdy fixed his insane throwing motion with the 49ers. Pratt combines all this with subpar arm strength, terrible ball placement, and a near-constant fear that someone is about to obliterate him into being one of the most uncomfortable quarterbacks to watch.
It all comes down to the base. Pull up a “Michael Pratt vs” highlight tape on YouTube and just watch his feet. He is always moving them, but not in a good way. He has a strange pitter-patter in the pocket that destroys his base and keeps him from giving any follow-through on throws. This is why balls die on him outside the numbers and why he is so difficult to watch. He’s clearly doing quarterback, but it’s like he doesn’t know how to quarterback.
Oh and he sometimes uses his happy feet to run, but he’s on the Ryan Tannehill-Joe Burrow rushing axis, so who’s to say if that’s a good idea?
NFL Comparison: Will Levis
2024 Opportunity:
There is zero chance that Michael Pratt will play this season barring catastrophe.
2024 Fantasy Football Outlook:
No, thanks!
