With Bad Run Game, Packers Should Trade for One More Veteran to Fill Hole

GREEN BAY, Wis. – The Green Bay Packers’ big-ticket left guard, Aaron Banks, is injured. Because of ineffective play from the backups, they signed 34-year-old Laken Tomlinson. Because of ineffective play from young right guard Jacob Monk, they signed 36-year-old Kevin Zeitler.

With Luke Musgrave injured, they signed 31-year-old tight end Jonnu Smith. To strengthen their defense after offseason attrition, they signed 31-year-old tackle Javon Hargrave and traded for 30-year-old linebacker Zaire Franklin.

Suddenly, the youngest-in-the-league Packers have hit middle age.

So, with general manager Brian Gutekunst setting aside youth for seasoning, maybe there’s one more oldie-but-goodie roster move to be made.

Trading for Cardinals running back James Conner.

It’s a possibility we’ve mentioned a few times, both before and after Josh Jacobs was arrested.

Conner, 31, is on injured reserve following a foot injury that sidelined him for most of last season. He was limited to individual drills during training camp but was placed on IR for the start of the season. He is expected to be ready to go in a few weeks, at which point maybe there will be some clarity on Jacobs’ future.

How James Conner Would Fit

At 6-foot-1 and 233 pounds, Conner fits the big-guy mold the Packers have typically preferred. Jacobs is one of the best dirty-work runners in the NFL. Block a play for 2 yards, Jacobs is going to fight for 2 or 3 more.

Conner is that same style of player. In 2024, Jacobs during his blockbuster debut season in Green Bay ranked eighth out of 46 backs who had at least 100 rushing attempts with 3.45 yards after contact per carry, according to Pro Football Focus. Conner was 13th with 3.30. He was 14th in rushing attempts but fourth with 62 forced missed tackles.

“Conner, he’s a beast,” Packers coach Matt LaFleur said before the 2024 matchup against Arizona. “He’s a big, physical back that is more elusive than he leads on just in terms of (being) a bigger guy.”

Conner is a proven workhorse. In 2023, he rushed for a career-high 1,040 yards even while being limited to 13 games. In 2024, he topped that with 1,094 yards in 16 games.

Arizona Cardinals running back James Conner carries the ball against the 49ers last season. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Jacobs is an adept receiver. So is Conner. Drafted in 2017, Conner from 2018 through 2024 averaged 40.1 receptions per season. He caught a career-high 55 passes in 2018 and averaged a career-high 10.1 yards per catch in 2021. In 2024, he caught 47 passes for 414 yards (8.8 average) and one touchdown.

When healthy and assuming he’s still got some spring in his step, Conner would be leaps-and-bounds better than Chris Brooks, MarShawn Lloyd and Kaleb Johnson.

Brooks is an incredibly valuable role player but doesn’t bring a lot of juice as a runner. Lloyd, the 2024 third-round pick, has some juice but hasn’t shown the speed to turn the corner, as he would prefer to do, or the power to gain yards after contact. Johnson has power but lacks the acceleration.

Moreover, Lloyd and Johnson fumbled last week against Tampa Bay, with LaFleur clearly exasperated after the game. Conner fumbled four times out of 283 touches in 2024 but had zero in 235 touches in 2023.

Just like Tomlinson brought stability and performance to the line in his debut against Tampa Bay, Conner could do the same thing for a rushing attack that ranks last in the NFL with 58.0 yards per game and is on pace to finish with the fewest rushing yards since the 1970 merger, when teams played only 14-game seasons.

Again, working under the assumption he comes back in something close to vintage form and hasn’t been tackled by Father Time, Conner’s size, power and proven production would give the Packers the balance they’ve been lacking all year. That, in turn, would do two things for the offense.

One, it would be in better down-and-distance situations. Green Bay is last in the NFL in third-down conversions due in large part to its average third-down play requiring 8.1 yards. That’s the fourth-longest distance required, with three teams averaging 8.2.

Two, it would have a real play-action threat. Love’s play-action passer ratings were 113.7 in 2023, 104.4 in 2024 and 100.3 in 2025. This year, it’s a whopping 132.8, but LaFleur hasn’t leaned on it much because he hasn’t been able to lean on his running game at all.

A New Backfield Leader

Arizona Cardinals running back James Conner wore the captain's "C" on his jersey last season. | USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect

Josh Jacobs was one of the Packers’ team leaders. He was voted a captain in 2024 and 2025 and probably would have again if not for the off-the-field incident that has meant what’s essentially a paid, indefinite suspension.

Conner is a leader, too.

“You want positive energy around you whether you’re talking (to people) or not,” Cardinals coach Mike LaFleur told reporters recently. “You know when you walk in a room or walk into someone’s house and you can just feel that the energy’s right? That’s what you feel – at least me, and I know the offense and the team, when you walk by him or when he’s in the room. He doesn’t have to say much to get his point across.”

Yes, age is a number that can’t be ignored with a running back, though three 30-something backs – Baltimore’s Derrick Henry, Minnesota’s Aaron Jones and San Francisco’s Christian McCaffrey – all have more than 340 combined rushing-receiving yards. Among running backs, they are in the top 14 in the league.

Let’s Make a Deal

Arizona Cardinals running back James Conner eludes Jaire Alexander at Lambeau Field in 2024. | USA TODAY Sports via Reuters Connect

With first-round pick Jeremiyah Love and free-agent Tyler Allgeier atop the depth chart and their season going nowhere fast, the Cardinals might be interested in trading one of their more popular players. With Jacobs’ status in limbo, the Packers might be interested.

The financial price wouldn’t be exorbitant; Conner’s base salary is $2.355 million; the Packers would only have to pay a prorated portion of that. There also are per-game roster bonuses. The price to make the trade would be low, too, considering that Conner is 31 and coming off an injury that limited him to three games last season.

To be sure, the Packers will need some sort of assurance that Conner is healthy and can be a factor, whether that’s the Cardinals getting Conner some game reps once he’s healthy or simply an honest conversation between the coaching brothers.

“I always go back to return to play, return to performance, and both those guys are smart enough to know that they want to be back when they can actually perform at the level that they're capable of,” Mike LaFleur said of Conner and tight end Tip Reiman.

By the time Conner is ready, the Packers might have some certainty on the status of Jacobs and the ability of the others to provide a real, honest-to-goodness running threat. Those timelines, and the trade deadline being Nov. 10, could be in a convenient alignment.

The Packers for the better part of two decades had shown almost zero interest in 30-something players. It’s different this year, with general manager Brian Gutekkusnt frantically trying to maximize the Jordan Love-Micah Parsons window.

Thus, for a team that hasn’t just bent from its usual roster-building philosophy but run from it with its veteran-centric additions, a healthy Conner would make a lot of sense in perhaps providing the running game the Packers have lacked through four games.

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