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Packers Trade for All-American Running Back After NFL Sidelines Josh Jacobs

The Green Bay Packers, who will not have Josh Jacobs on the opening roster, have acquired running back Kaleb Johnson in a trade with the Steelers.
Bill Huber|
The Green Bay Packers acquired Pittsburgh Steelers running back Kaleb Johnson on Sunday.
The Green Bay Packers acquired Pittsburgh Steelers running back Kaleb Johnson on Sunday. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

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Green Bay Packers

GREEN BAY, Wis. – With Josh Jacobs out for the start of the season and facing an uncertain future, the Green Bay Packers traded for Pittsburgh Steelers running back Kaleb Johnson.

The Packers reportedly will send a 2028 sixth-round pick to the Steelers; it’s their pick, not the one acquired in the earlier trade of quarterback Kyle McCord.

The Packers are placing Jacobs on the commissioner exempt list, according to ESPN.com’s Adam Schefter. That means he will not be on the initial 53-man roster, with Johnson essentially taking his place on the roster if not the lineup.

In a statement, Jacobs’ attorney said:

“Josh Jacobs has been placed on the Commissioner’s Exempt List, which is an administrative procedure used by the NFL while a matter is being reviewed. It is not a final determination. Josh respects the NFL process, the Packers, and his Coaches and Teammates. He looks forward to his return to the team and the NFL.”

Johnson was a third-round pick by the Steelers last year. He was the 83rd pick of the 2025 draft, four spots ahead of Green Bay grabbing receiver Savion Williams.

For Johnson, it will be a badly needed change of scenery. His rookie season was a disaster. During the second game of the season, he botched a kickoff return that gave a gift-wrapped touchdown to the Seahawks. He spent most of the rest of the season in then-coach Mike Tomlin’s doghouse.

In 10 games, Johnson carried the ball 28 times for 69 yards (2.5 average) and caught one pass for 9 yards. He did not score a touchdown.

“Obviously what you guys saw on the field was disappointing,” Steelers general manager Omar Khan said at the Scouting Combine. “It’s got to be better, but we see it on the practice field. We knew what he did in college and I'd expect Kaleb to turn the corner.”

Second Chance for Kaleb Johnson

Johnson is a big-time talent, though.

First, he fits the Packers’ big-guy mold. He’s 6-foot-1 and 224 pounds with 9 5/8-inch hands. He ran his 40 in 4.57 seconds.

“He was touched by God, so to speak, from a physical standpoint,” Iowa football strength coach Raimond Braithwaite told The Athletic. “He looks like a Greek god. A statue.”

At Iowa, he rushed for 779 yards in 2022 and 463 yards in 2023 before an absolute blockbuster season in 2024. He led the Big Ten with 1,537 rushing yards, 21 rushing touchdowns and 23 total touchdowns. With 1,725 total yards, he earned All-American honors.

“He has a natural feel for running the football, obviously, that’s why we recruited him,” Iowa running backs coach Ladell Betts, who had a nine-year NFL career, said. “He definitely has good vision, good feel, good feet. Now it’s about trying to maximize on that and continue to get better.”

Betts added: “I tell him all the time defenses get tired of tackling,” Betts said. “If they have a guy that keeps attacking them and attacking them play after play, they don’t like that. They don’t want to have to deal with that.”

At the time, Tomlin was thrilled to land Johnson, who had 240 carries during his final season at Iowa. He had 20-plus carries in three consecutive games and 35 carries for 164 yards in a late-season game against Maryland.

“Just like I was talking about a physicality and big-man agenda, this is a high-volume, capable runner who was the center of his offense – a lot of NFL Sunday-like runs, if you will, meaning he did it from the home position or the pistol position into a lot of loaded boxes,” Tomlin said after the draft.

“There wasn’t a lot of guesswork or Saturday-like holes on his tape, and that made the evaluation a fun one and the projection an easy one.”

With runs of 40-plus yards in six games in 2024, Johnson’s lack of stopwatch speed was not a concern to Tomlin. 

“We didn’t question his speed whatsoever watching the video,” he said. “Oftentimes that’s the case. You can watch video and be really excited about someone’s speed or you can go to the Combine and get excited by their Combine 40 time. His speed was not in question on video. He broke a lot of long runs in the Big Ten.”

Plus, he broke 66 tackles and averaged a staggering 4.42 yards after contact, according to Pro Football Focus.

“I don't want to be no first- and second-down back,” Johnson said at the Scouting Combine. “I want to be a third-down, fourth-down back, and put into horrible situations to make situations good.”

Not Strong Enough

The odd man out was Strong, who had an excellent training camp and quality preseason. He’s not a big, powerful back in the mold of Jacobs or Johnson but is more of a cutback, slashing runner with explosive speed.

“I feel like I put the work in,” he said after the Arizona game. “I’ve been grinding since before OTAs, so I feel like I’ve been putting the work in, and I feel confident myself.”

Johnson was a fourth-round pick by New England in 2022 – Packers special teams coordinator Cam Achord was the Patriots’ special teams coordinator – who was traded to Cleveland late in training camp in 2023. From 2022 through 2024, he averaged 5.0 yards per carry.

The Browns released him at the end of camp last year, and he spent the season on Green Bay’s practice squad without getting in a game.

“I feel like God puts everybody through a test. So, I’m hungry,” he said. “I’m always going to be hungry. Practice squad, 53-man roster. I’m still hungry, but I’m very hungry now. So, I want to get back to where I’ve been.”

Now, he’ll have to bide his time on a running back depth chart that will crowded so long as Jacobs isn’t suspended following an incident that happened over Memorial Day weekend.

“The world, you know?” he said of what it would mean to be on the 53 and playing in regular-season games. “It ain’t even about me no more. I just brought my little girl in the world, so everything I do is for her. I want her to grow up and watch her father play football. So, like I said, man, it’d mean the world to me, man. Where I’m at right now, millions of kids wish they were here. I’m going to stay and grind.”

Three Trades for Packers

The Packers also traded Kyle McCord to the Dolphins for a sixth-round pick and acquired tight end Mark Redman from the Rams.

Redman went undrafted out of Louisville in 2025. He spent last season on the Rams’ practice squad. In this preseason, he played in 64 snaps and caught six passes for 63 yards.

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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.