Week 3 Fantasy Football Start ‘Em, Sit ‘Em: Kaleb Johnson vs. MarShawn Lloyd vs. Chris Brooks
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The Green Bay Packers' backfield got even more difficult to gauge for fantasy football after their Week 2 outing against the New York Jets. That comes with three RBs logging carries in the game: MarShawn Lloyd, Kaleb Johnson, and Chris Brooks.
With Green Bay playing early this week against the Atlanta Falcons on Thursday Night Football, here is a breakdown of which of the three Packers RBs is the best option to start in fantasy in Week 3.
MarShawn Lloyd
Lloyd, who is listed as Green Bay's RB1, seems to have put that role in jeopardy with his production through two weeks. In Week 1, he had 13 carries for 37 yards, and in Week 2 he had just six carries for 20 yards. He did boost his fantasy points total in Week 2 by logging two receptions for six yards and a TD. However, Lloyd had a fumble early in the fourth quarter, which officially put a cap on his fantasy production against New York. After that, he did not log a carry or touch the ball for the rest of the game.
With Lloyd's underwhelming statistics, fantasy managers with him should be a bit stressed. In Week 1, Lloyd played in 44% of snaps; in Week 2, he played in just 27% of snaps.
Green Bay is clearly not set on making Lloyd a workhorse back, whether that is because they do not trust him to be or because of his injury history; either way, his fantasy outlook is plummeting. Fantasy managers should be looking to trade him now before his fantasy value goes down even more.
Chris Brooks
Brooks’ in Green Bay’s two games has had the highest snap percentage of any Packers RB. In Week 1, he played in 56% of snaps, and in Week 2 he played in 46% of snaps. And while he is seeing the field more than any other RB, he is not seeing many touches. So far, he has just 11 carries for 40 yards and one reception for 15 yards.
Brooks has played this role, being primarily a blocking RB, throughout his career and even did so in 2025 with the Packers.
That season, in three games, he played 44% or more of their snaps, and in those outings he had a total of 21 carries for 82 yards. The bulk of that production was in Week 18, where he logged 13 rushes for 61 yards against the Vikings. Across those two games, he also had two receptions for 16 yards.
Kaleb Johnson
The exact same day that Josh Jacobs went on the NFL commissioner-exempt list, the Packers acquired Johnson from the Pittsburgh Steelers via trade. He did not play in Week 1, but began to see the field for them in Week 2, logging eight carries for 32 yards.
They could be ramping him up, with him being a late addition to their team. With that possibility and Lloyd not taking a firm hold of the RB1 spot in Green Bay with his performances, Johnson is certainly worth snagging off the waiver wire. In ESPN leagues, he is currently just rostered by 5.7% of teams.
Green Bay RBs Fantasy Outlook vs. Atlanta Falcons
The Falcons, thus far in 2026 despite starting 0-2, have had one of the best rushing defenses in the NFL. They are currently allowing the fewest rushing yards per game in the NFL: 63.0. They were a middle-of-the-pack team for opposing RBs to go up against in fantasy in 2025, allowing the 15th-fewest PPR fantasy points per game to opposing RBs.
Final Verdict
When it comes to what Green Bay RB fantasy managers should start in Week 3 between Johnson, Lloyd, and Brooks, Lloyd should start.
If fantasy managers are able to, they should avoid starting any of the three RBs in Week 3. The matchup is unideal, and coming off a Week 2 outing where not one of the three RBs got a big enough workload to have a significant fantasy outing provides no clear outlook for any of the three to have any fantasy success against Atlanta.
With that, Lloyd still remains the player with the highest fantasy potential. He has the most carries of the three RBs through their two games (19) and is tied for the most targets (3).
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Gray Deyo is a Nashville-based sportswriter who graduated with a sports management bachelor's degree from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. He has covered prep sports, college sports, the WNBA, and the NBA for the past four years. In addition to writing for SI, Gray also currently contributes to Prep Girls Hoops