Dillon Brings ‘Insane’ Production, Durability, Skill-Set and Physique
GREEN BAY, Wis. – A few numbers about A.J. Dillon stick out like the sore thumb (and sore abdominals and sore shoulders and, well, sore everything) he inflicted on opponents during three hard-charging seasons at Boston College.
From 2017 through 2019, he topped 1,100-plus rushing yards in each season.
In 2019, he recorded career highs of 1,685 rushing yards and 15 total touchdowns.
He did that despite running into loaded boxes 44 percent of the time, according to Sports Info Solutions. Of the five backs drafted before Dillon, Georgia’s D’Andre Swift was a distant second at 21 percent.
Here’s another number that stands out about the Green Bay Packers’ second-round pick: In 35 career games, Dillon averaged 24.1 carries per game. How did he do it? How did he miss only two games due to injury in his career despite the heavy workload? How did he keep himself ready week after week after week?
“He understands that he’s going to have to keep his weight where it needs to be. He’s very conscious of that,” said Brian White, his running backs coach at Boston College and now the running backs coach at Colorado State. “He had 5 percent body fat, so I’d say he knows how to take care of his body really well. It was incredible. He came in lean at 10 or 11 percent and worked with our strength and conditioning coaches to get down to 5 percent, which is just insane.”
Dillon is roughly the same weight as former Packers running back Eddie Lacy, who was listed at 234 pounds by Green Bay but 250 in his lone season with Seattle in 2017. Whatever the reality of the scale, Lacy always looked at least a little bit sloppy.
“Well, this guy’s a good 250,” White said. “I would say that Eddie George would probably be someone comparable in terms of what their body looks like.” George, a four-time Pro Bowler with the Tennessee Titans, topped 10,000 rushing yards in nine seasons. In each of the first eight, he carried the ball at least 312 times.
One other number stood out to White.
“He had a 29 on the Wonderlic,” he said of the intelligence test administered to prospects. “I don’t know how many running backs in the draft had as good a Wonderlic score as that. He’s a really sharp guy and well-rounded guy. You’ll enjoy him.”
There’s one more number that stands out, and, on the surface, it’s not a good one. In three seasons, Dillon caught just 21 passes. After the Packers drafted Dillion, area scout Mike Owen said Dillon ran routes at practice and showed “real good hands” on the practice field and at the Scouting Combine. White went one step further.
“He’ll be outstanding in the passing game,” he said. “There’s only so many times you can get him the ball, so we preferred to hand it to him and toss it to him. He caught the ball very effectively for us. What’s going to surprise people is, for a big guy, he might be as good a route-runner as there will be on the team. He can run routes because he’s got great lower-body balance and he can stick his foot in the ground and change direction really quickly. He’ll impress people in that regard. I know the Packers had 88 catches between the backs last year. He’ll be ready to do that.”
White’s had quite a run as an assistant coach. At Wisconsin, where he coached Ron Dayne, he had eight 1,000-yard rushers in eight seasons, including Dayne, Michael Bennett and Anthony Davis. Based on sheer size, it’s an easy comparison to Dayne. At the 2000 Scouting Combine, the 259-pound Dayne ran his 40 in 4.65 seconds. Twelve pounds lighter, Dillon ran a 4.53 in the 40 and had the best broad jump and vertical jump of any running back in one of the great Combine performances in memory.
“He’s got great lower-body strength and incredible balance, and he studies the game. He’s really a student of the game,” White said. “His uniqueness is his lower-body strength is just incredible, and his explosion is second only to Ron Dayne that I’ve coached. He’s so different and so unique because he’s such a powerful guy. Ron had the power and really ballerina’s feet, but A.J.’s got the first-step explosiveness that I don’t think I’ve ever been around.”
