Packers Sign Running Back Who Was Third-Round Pick

The Green Bay Packers have added to their running back room.

With Josh Jacobs set to be on the shelf this weekend against the Indianapolis Colts, the backup running backs were already set to get a lot of run in Saturday’s preseason game.

Last week against the New York Jets, that meant Chris Brooks got to start.

Four different running backs would carry the ball, with undrafted rookie Amar Johnson being the most productive of the bunch.

Unfortunately, as is usually the case, football leads to injuries, and the Packers did have another one of their running backs sidelined for Tuesday’s practice.

Emanuel Wilson and Marshawn Lloyd are both working their way back from injuries. Jalen White injured his foot on his second snap Saturday.

Before practice started on Tuesday, Isreal Abanikanda was sidelined with a hamstring injury.

With Wilson and Lloyd potentially limited this week, and Abanikanda now unlikely to participate, the Packers needed to add another back just to get through the rest of camp.

Tyrion Davis-Price, a former third-round pick was signed to the roster and at practice on Tuesday morning, according to his agency.

Jalen White was waived-injured as the corresponding move to add Davis-Price to the roster.

Davis-Price is not short on talent or pedigree. He’s a former third-round pick of the San Francisco 49ers.

He showed off his skills in his best game for the Bayou Bengals when he ran for 287 yards against the Florida Gators in October of 2021.  That set the school record.

He finished his career with 1,744 yards and 15 touchdowns in Baton Rouge, averaging 4.6 yards-per-carry.

Price would get picked in the third round by the San Francisco 49ers in 2022. He’s appeared in eight games over three seasons, including brief stints with the Philadelphia Eagles and Tennessee Titans before making his way to Green Bay.

So what are the Packers getting with their new running back?

“He’s come a long way,” General Manager John Lynch told 49ers.com in the summer of 2023.

“Again, he plays for two touch coaches in Anthony Lynn and Bobby Turner, who have a high standard. That room has a high standard.

At times last year it didn’t feel like it was the guy we watched in college. But man, it’s been a complete turnaround, he’s hitting the hole. He’s hitting it with aggressiveness, and that downhill style that we like and he’s made himself a better receiver in the passing game.”

His downhill running style is something that he should have some things to learn from Green Bay’s star runner, Josh Jacobs, who employs a similar style.

There are reps to be won in the passing game as well. For now, those have gone to Chris Brooks, but all it takes is one play for Davis-Price to find his way onto the field to show what he can do.

Davis-Price’s position coach in college was Kevin Faulk, who was a three-time Super Bowl champion with the New England Patriots during a 13-year NFL career.

“They got somebody who is willing to learn, ready to learn, and still has a lot more to learn,” Faulk told NBC Sports Bay Area after Davis-Price was drafted.

Davis-Price has slimmed down, listed at 6-foot-1, 219 pounds, but played around 230 when he was in college.

“He thought he had to be thicker to take on that pounding those SEC linebackers,” Faulk said.

“But like I told him, if you’re explosive it doesn’t matter how thick you are because you’re just going to run through guys.

He has smaller-back attributes, jump-cutting, flowing through the hole, after the jump-cut. He has those attributes; He just has to understand that he has to stay consistent with his weight and maintain that focus.”

The jump cutting ability will theoretically fit well in Matt LaFleur’s wide-zone scheme, which is very similar to the one that San Francisco 49ers Head Coach Kyle Shanahan employs.

“I think he fits in well,” Faulk said of Davis-Price when the 49ers drafted him.

“I think he fits in with the other guys they have there, especially Elijah (Mitchell), I just think those two guys will complement each other real well.”

Davis-Price marks the second former 49ers’ running back the Packers have added this offseason, with them claiming Abanikanda off waivers earlier this offseason to add to the mix in their backfield.

He’ll likely get a chance to get some carries late in the game on Saturday against the Colts.

If he can make a play or two, he could find his way toward announcing his candidacy for a spot on the practice squad.