Packer Central

Packers-Broncos Inactives: Big Updates at Running Back

The Green Bay Packers entered Sunday’s game at the Denver Broncos with their top two running backs listed as questionable. Here’s their status along with the inactives.
Bill Huber|
Green Bay Packers running back Josh Jacobs (8) is tackled by Chicago Bears linebacker T.J. Edwards.
Green Bay Packers running back Josh Jacobs (8) is tackled by Chicago Bears linebacker T.J. Edwards. | Tork Mason / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

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Green Bay Packers

GREEN BAY, Wis. – Running backs Josh Jacobs and Emanuel Wilson have gained 76.7 percent of the Green Bay Packers’ rushing yards. Both players, who were questionable, will be in the lineup for Sunday’s showdown at the Denver Broncos.

Jacobs, who leads the team with 817 rushing yards, didn’t practice on Wednesday or Thursday this week and was questionable on Friday’s injury report. On Saturday, Packers On SI reported that Jacobs was expected to play.

Wilson, who is second on the team with 351 rushing yards, had no injuries during the practice week but was added to the injury report as questionable due to illness on Saturday.

With Jacobs and Wilson active, running back Pierre Strong, who was elevated from the practice squad for the third time this season, is among the six inactives. With defensive end Lukas Van Ness back in the lineup after missing seven of the previous eight games with an injured foot, rookie Barryn Sorrell is inactive.

The other inactives are receiver/kickoff returner Savion Williams, who will miss a third consecutive game with an injured foot, guard Donovan Jennings and defensive tackles Nazir Stackhouse and Quinton Bohanna.

For Denver, receiver Pat Bryant is out with a hamstring injury but right tackle Mike McGlinchey, who was questionable with a shoulder injury, will play. He recently made his 100th career start and has the fourth-lowest pressure rate allowed among tackles.

Jacobs, who needs to average 45.75 rushing yards over the final four games to hit 1,000 yards for the fifth time in his seven-year career, is third in the league with 12 rushing touchdowns.

Jacobs has 1,068 yards from scrimmage this season. That has him 32 yards short of becoming the fifth player since 2000 with at least 1,100 scrimmage yards in each of his first seven seasons, joining Matt Forte, Alvin Kamara, Adrian Peterson and Pro Football Hall of Famer LaDainian Tomlinson.

The Packers have rushed for 15 touchdowns as a team. Wilson has the other three.

Their ability to run the ball will be critical against the Broncos to avoid the fiercest teeth of the NFL’s best pass rush. Denver, however, is No. 1 in the NFL in yards allowed per carry.

“When you look at their front, their backers, their back end, they’ve got players across the board,” Packers coach Matt LaFleur said this week. “The sack numbers are pretty crazy. Their run defense is pretty crazy. Then you got a legitimate shutdown corner. I think the safeties are excellent. So, they’ve got a lot of great players, and they put them in great position, and they go out there and they play.

“I think there’s a lot of similarities when I look at our defense in regards to the style of play, how hard they play, how hard they finish and tackle. And so it’s going to be a great test for us.”

Jacobs does not have a 100-yard game this year but is coming off two of his most productive games of the season with 17 carries for 83 yards at Detroit and 20 carries for 86 yards and the deciding touchdown against Chicago.

A week before those games, when Jacobs was inactive for the game against Minnesota, Wilson rushed for 107 yards and two touchdowns.

“You look at the 100-yard number and that’s what a lot of people talk about, but there’s a lot of games where you look at like his combined total yardage, the stuff he adds in the passing game has been great,” offensive coordinator Adam Stenavich said this week.

“I think he’s just been very consistent as the year has gone on. And again, you look at just like the situational football with him when you get into the red zone or short yardage (and) things like that, where he comes through and just makes plays (and) he punches it in the end zone. He’s got a bunch of touchdowns. So, yeah, he’s obviously had a great year from that standpoint.”

At defensive tackle, Jordon Riley, who was signed off the Giants’ practice squad last Tuesday, will play ahead of Stackhouse and Quinton Bohanna, who was claimed off waivers from the Seahawks last Friday.

“I think both those guys are different just in regards to their size and build and all that,” coach Matt LaFleur said this week. “Riley I thought went in there and did a really good job. He’s a long guy, tall, big guy. And Bohanna, he’s a mountain of a man in regards to he’s a tough guy to move.

“Got both of those guys kind of integrated and we’ll see how they perform in terms of their practices and ultimately make a decision as we get closer in terms of who’s going to get the bulk of the reps.”

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Bill Huber
BILL HUBER

Bill Huber, who has covered the Green Bay Packers since 2008, is the publisher of Packers On SI, a Sports Illustrated channel. E-mail: packwriter2002@yahoo.com History: Huber took over Packer Central in August 2019. Twitter: https://twitter.com/BillHuberNFL Background: Huber graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, where he played on the football team, in 1995. He worked in newspapers in Reedsburg, Wisconsin Dells and Shawano before working at The Green Bay News-Chronicle and Green Bay Press-Gazette from 1998 through 2008. With The News-Chronicle, he won several awards for his commentaries and page design. In 2008, he took over as editor of Packer Report Magazine, which was founded by Hall of Fame linebacker Ray Nitschke, and PackerReport.com. In 2019, he took over the new Sports Illustrated site Packer Central, which he has grown into one of the largest sites in the Sports Illustrated Media Group.