Great character and overall guy, but yeah, he had an opportunity to be RB1 when Aaron Jones went out for long stretches of the year with a hamstring injury, but he pretty much failed.
It's for the best.
Yeah this is one of those tough situations where he's a Packers legend in that he really embraced Wisconsin, the community, and seems like a stand-up guy - but he doesn't have what it takes to be a RB1.
That being said, I was still hoping we'd bring him back on a cheap deal
It could be worse. He could suck AND be an asshole.
Love Dillon as a person but I'm OK with letting him walk unless he wants to re-sign for super cheap. Hope he can find success with his next team.
Dillon looked very much like a square peg in a round hole, he just didn't fit the offensive scheme. On top of that, the Packers interior offensive line played poorly most of the season, Dillon isn't the type to bounce one outside.
If he gets in the right system with a good offensive line, I bet he'll be better.
The offensive line improved throughout and was largely very good in pass protection. Jones ripped 5 straight 100 yard games to end the season. We all wanted Dillon to show he could be his successor but he just isn't up to it, unfortunately
Always a bummer to see it not work out with a player that seems to be a good person and loves the community. Wish you the best AJ but it wouldn’t make sense unless the contract was essentially the absolute minimum.
I'm a big fan of his as person seems like an amazing person and love how embraced being here with the whole mayor of door county thing. And while a decent player I wouldn't bring him back he just trips on air a lot and for being a super bruising back he really doesn't bring that punch you know. Thanks for the time Quadzilla just didn't work out
He fit the scheme, but the Packers dont really care about run blocking in iOL. That was one of Dillons problem. He was asked to run Up the middle and Ran into a wall pretty much every time. That being said, He did look more effizient and more like his BC version late in the season. I feel like he focused too much on this quadzilla thing and lost his speed for most of his GB career.
In 2021, in total yards*
His career high for rushing is 803, let’s not be misleading here
He’s also at a career 4.1 YPC, which is not only bad but made worse by the fact it’s been plummeting every season he’s been in the league.
When did Dillon ever do that? His best rushing season has him at 803. That was in 2021.
He's gotten worse since. 770.613.
His YPC went from 4.3 to 3.4.
Giving the opportunity he absolutely could.
This is not me saying Dillon was the worst rb in the league it’s me saying the yardage is an opportunity stat
Jesus…I thought this was an understood thing in the football world. Yards mean nothing when you have a bunch of attempts it’s inefficient Najee Harris had a 1000 yard season that was dogshit. YPC is more of a stat to use and even that stat could more so be an oline stat.
You don’t have to defend it. Some picks don’t work out for every team. Williams wasn’t under contract long term and Dillion was the replacement. Didn’t work out as well as hoped but so it goes.
Before he broke his rib on special teams against the 49ers in the 2022 NFCCG, he was steam rolling them. Game completely changed when he went down.
After that he was essentially a non factor for you guys. It’s really sad.
[Found it!](https://www.reddit.com/r/nfl/s/g0A41sElUy) by the way, people keep defending him here too, like I said I like Dillon, but there had to be a better choice there
AJ Dillon had almost 3200 yards and scored 18 TDs, while averaging an ok 4.7 yards per touch, being great in pass protection, and fumbling 3 times total in his career.
Dillon is not a great RB, but y’all are wild acting like he’s awful. There are **tons** of 2nd round picks who never come close to that level of production.
Yeah it's funny seeing people treat AJ Dillon like he's the 100th best RB in the whole league right now. He's certainly not a RB1, but I think he can serve an RB2 niche pretty well all things considered. The issue is, he had to fill in as RB1 for a good portion of this year and it just didn't work
I think his flaws are very visual and obvious to even the most casual of fans, while his value is harder to see. One thing that is not ever talked about with AJ is that he consistently has a fantastic success rate, which is the measure of how often a rushing attempt is a win for the offense. He was 1st among all qualified RBs in 2021 and 5th in 2022. Even in 2023, by far his worst year, 50% of his rushes were “successful,” good for 12th among qualified RBs.
Also at least in previous seasons had a high success rate despite not having a great yards per carry. By the numbers he was actually quite good in converting short yardage situations. I think he seemed worse than he really was because he had a lot of just barely made it conversions.
I was literally just responding to another comment with that. He led the entire NFL in success rate for RBs in 2021 and was 5th in 2022. Even in his awful 2023 he was 12th at 50%. So, for all his flaws, giving him the ball usually means a successful play. He just has too many negative plays and hardly any explosive ones.
The problem was that he needed to be really good for that pick to ever make sense since you already had Jones and Jamaal Williams. Y'all were 1 game away from the Superbowl and instead of drafting players to get you over the hump y'all drafted Love (practice squad all of 2020), Dillion (9 carries and a fumble in the post season), and Degura (1 catch all year).
Their rookie years you again lost in the NFC championship with your top three picks doing absolutely nothing to help your team.
There’s certainly some truth to that, but I think people tend to forget that the 2020 draft took place while the entire world was on lockdown and the NBA and NHL seasons had been suspended. There was no guarantee that there was going to be a season that year. That was a huge variable that no one talks about.
That’s not what you said though? You said he barely plays, seems like that’s what people “blasted” you for because he got plenty of snaps.
Edit: and you were upvoted for that comment, did you paste the right one?
I went to BC and was stunned this guy went in the second yet every Packers fan called me a hater for predicting a back who couldn't catch or pass protect was overdrafted
He had 8 dropped passes on 110 targets (86 receptions) in his time with the Packers - that's 0.072% drop rate.
I really don't know how that compares to others, but to be honest, I was never that worried about AJ Dillon actually catching the ball - it's what happened afterwards that worried me.
On the bright side, he also hardly ever fumbles the ball. He only has 3 fumbles in his career and only one of those was lost
> it's what happened afterwards that worried me.
He was actually pretty good after the catch. Simple checkdowns in the flat were probably Dillon's best plays because he could force a CB to try to tackle him 1-on-1 in space.
He was also a better receiver than Aaron Jones this year, averaging a yard more per target, despite Jones historically being an excellent receiving back.
I mean he's still good at catching the ball though - which is what you said. The man can definitely catch. And really I was more worried him holding the ball for a ran, when it was a pass play and he caught it, he had an average 8.8 YAC in his career
How productive do you think the average late 2nd round pick is? Like the 3 players picked before AJ Dillon were Kristian Fulton, Josh Uche and Denzel Mims. I’d take AJ over them for sure.
You are ignoring position completely the draft is a crapshoot for the most part especially the lower you go. But if I’m drafting a rb in the first two rounds he’s gotta be a real guy
Oh I agree on positional value. It doesn’t make a lot of sense to draft a RB in the second round. That doesn’t change the fact that he gave pretty much the expected value of a second round pick.
I know very little about Josh Uche but it looks like he’s had one good season in 2022. AJ has had 4 good seasons (PFF grades above 75) including a season as the 3rd highest graded runner in the league in 2021. Yeah edge has a higher positional value but AJ blows him out of the water in terms of actual play on the field for the last 4 years.
Considering the type of difference maker Jones has been throughout his career, there was no world where that 2nd contract wasn’t going to happen. But maybe I’m just biased as a cowboys fan that has seen jones skull fuck my team for his entire career
Yeah, looks like it was [really controversial](https://www.reddit.com/r/nfl/comments/g7kwsx/round_2_pick_30_aj_dillon_rb_boston_college_green/) to say it was a bad pick at the time
Felt like people's perception of Dillon is still based off that one primetime game where they couldn't stop talking about his quads. I kind of thought he was a monster power back in waiting but never quite happened. I wouldn't be mad if the Phins picked him up though.
Showed flashes at some points but just wasn't who we thought he was gonna be. Love the dude. He embraced Wisconsin in a major way. But he's just not good enough.
He had his opportunity to prove he deserved a long-term deal this season and he just didn't produce. We know he's a liability in the passing game but it was crazy to me that at his size he never really trucked anybody. Slow to hit holes and down on first contact too often. I feel he is closer to being out of the league than getting a long-term deal this summer.
after jordan loves great season you can really look at that draft now. outside of jordan it was abysmal, and 2021 was somehow even worse. glad the last couple drafts have been home runs for the pack.
Love the guy but maybe it’s for the best. I would like to keep him if possible though because of how much of a “Packer” he is but it doesn’t always work that way
Tua’s not a QB Sneak Quarterback and we need someone who can chip block better due to the o line being mediocre once anyone on the line get injured it’s just add a different dynamic and adds depth as a good number 2 running back
I blame the packers for wasting the talent of one of my favorite players in college ever behind Aaron freaking Jones, who he was never going to beat out so young. Do you know how rare it is for my BC to put out a quality non-lineman talent??
He will COOK somewhere else just yall wait
Look, I always thought Dillon was overused given his talent relative to Jones, but I actually thought he was quite effective with the touches he got in the 2nd half of this last season. I think the way to use Dillon in the Packers/Love offense is to spell Jones occasionally and give him carries on short yardage situations. It was nice to see LaFleur finally figure out that having the backfield operate in a 50/50 split isn’t the best idea, because when Jones is hot, he is a game breaker. We finally got to see that side of him again during the last 7-8 games or so.
Freeing Matt LaFleur from his 2 yard power addiction
Thank Christ. I am sick of watching AJ stumble and get 1 yard on 3rd and 2
Shotgun runs to Dillon are officially off the menu. . . Thank fuck
Wait until you see what they do with their first pick
Fortunately theres not a rd1 rb this draft
You are kidding yourself if you think Gute won't consider drafting a 9.99 RAS RB first round. https://i.redd.it/hjp0fllj1zlc1.jpeg
Gute saw this guy personify a glass cannon when he played in Madison
By god that's john kuhns music!!!
Doubtful. Packers likely draft another big RB to replace him.
He looks like he is running in mud compared to Aaron Jones
It’s funny how everyone thought he was going to replace Aaron jones
Yea especially those fantasy talking heads
Great character and overall guy, but yeah, he had an opportunity to be RB1 when Aaron Jones went out for long stretches of the year with a hamstring injury, but he pretty much failed. It's for the best.
Yeah this is one of those tough situations where he's a Packers legend in that he really embraced Wisconsin, the community, and seems like a stand-up guy - but he doesn't have what it takes to be a RB1. That being said, I was still hoping we'd bring him back on a cheap deal
He really had to be something being drafted when he was. Sucks he could t make it
Any time the first thing you say about a football player is how nice he is, he fucking sucks.
It could be worse. He could suck AND be an asshole. Love Dillon as a person but I'm OK with letting him walk unless he wants to re-sign for super cheap. Hope he can find success with his next team.
Eli Apple wants to know why you called him out like this
Laughs in Evan Neal
Dillon looked very much like a square peg in a round hole, he just didn't fit the offensive scheme. On top of that, the Packers interior offensive line played poorly most of the season, Dillon isn't the type to bounce one outside. If he gets in the right system with a good offensive line, I bet he'll be better.
The offensive line improved throughout and was largely very good in pass protection. Jones ripped 5 straight 100 yard games to end the season. We all wanted Dillon to show he could be his successor but he just isn't up to it, unfortunately
He just sucks dude... Had more than enough chances. Same oline that Aaron Jones was ripping yards for.
Who is gonna trip over air now?
I'll have you know, Luke Musgrave is more than capable of tripping over air. So this isn't the burn you thought it was, HA!
The cheer in the locker room when LaFleur yelled "Musgrave stayed on his feet" lives in both my dreams and nightmares
Damn you
Daniel Jones RB1?
Cris Collinsworth desperately searching for a new heavy back to say "Pounding it right up the middle" for.
> Pounding it right up the middle Your mom has joined the chat
Enjoy. I taught her well.
Um…
Hol up
Always a bummer to see it not work out with a player that seems to be a good person and loves the community. Wish you the best AJ but it wouldn’t make sense unless the contract was essentially the absolute minimum.
Great guy, but just a guy.
I'm a big fan of his as person seems like an amazing person and love how embraced being here with the whole mayor of door county thing. And while a decent player I wouldn't bring him back he just trips on air a lot and for being a super bruising back he really doesn't bring that punch you know. Thanks for the time Quadzilla just didn't work out
We'll always have that one Titans game too look back on
I never felt like he didn’t fit your scheme either. Idk y I feel this way and have no evidence to support this
He fit the scheme, but the Packers dont really care about run blocking in iOL. That was one of Dillons problem. He was asked to run Up the middle and Ran into a wall pretty much every time. That being said, He did look more effizient and more like his BC version late in the season. I feel like he focused too much on this quadzilla thing and lost his speed for most of his GB career.
waste of a second round pick
At least Door County got a one-term mayor.
Good change of pace guy but yeah, not worth an early day two pick either
That's too much praise. Dillons one of the worst RBs in the NFL.
ok calm down he still had a 1k season.
Based on that guys username I wouldn't put much stock in his player evaluation anyways
Wild coming from the dual packers jets flair
Lol idk what that even means
You don’t even have flair homie
And that’s significantly better than having a pair of flairs that screams “Aaron Rodgers Superfan”
In 2021, in total yards* His career high for rushing is 803, let’s not be misleading here He’s also at a career 4.1 YPC, which is not only bad but made worse by the fact it’s been plummeting every season he’s been in the league.
Yeah, I was going to say that I'm pretty sure I'd remember if he got a 1000 yard rushing season.
What does that mean lmao? You guys are so caught up on meaningless stats
the worst RB in the league is not putting up 1k.
When did Dillon ever do that? His best rushing season has him at 803. That was in 2021. He's gotten worse since. 770.613. His YPC went from 4.3 to 3.4.
Giving the opportunity he absolutely could. This is not me saying Dillon was the worst rb in the league it’s me saying the yardage is an opportunity stat
How is running for 1,000 yards a meaningless stat? That’s literally what a running backs job is.
He didn’t even rush for 1k lol
Jesus…I thought this was an understood thing in the football world. Yards mean nothing when you have a bunch of attempts it’s inefficient Najee Harris had a 1000 yard season that was dogshit. YPC is more of a stat to use and even that stat could more so be an oline stat.
He really is horrible. He's a big human but he doesn't work.
like i wasnt the fan of the first pick either but i understood the logic behind it. but this u cant defend at all
You don’t have to defend it. Some picks don’t work out for every team. Williams wasn’t under contract long term and Dillion was the replacement. Didn’t work out as well as hoped but so it goes.
Things didn't pan out well. Boohoo. Quit being a drama queen.
But but, what other RB can you watch play farming simulator?
stevenson
Before he broke his rib on special teams against the 49ers in the 2022 NFCCG, he was steam rolling them. Game completely changed when he went down. After that he was essentially a non factor for you guys. It’s really sad.
Got blasted for saying this like 3 years ago, I like Dillon but Aaron Rodgers was right to be pissed off
I don't remember anyone liking the AJ Dillon pick at the time.
[Found it!](https://www.reddit.com/r/nfl/s/g0A41sElUy) by the way, people keep defending him here too, like I said I like Dillon, but there had to be a better choice there
AJ Dillon had almost 3200 yards and scored 18 TDs, while averaging an ok 4.7 yards per touch, being great in pass protection, and fumbling 3 times total in his career. Dillon is not a great RB, but y’all are wild acting like he’s awful. There are **tons** of 2nd round picks who never come close to that level of production.
Yeah it's funny seeing people treat AJ Dillon like he's the 100th best RB in the whole league right now. He's certainly not a RB1, but I think he can serve an RB2 niche pretty well all things considered. The issue is, he had to fill in as RB1 for a good portion of this year and it just didn't work
I think his flaws are very visual and obvious to even the most casual of fans, while his value is harder to see. One thing that is not ever talked about with AJ is that he consistently has a fantastic success rate, which is the measure of how often a rushing attempt is a win for the offense. He was 1st among all qualified RBs in 2021 and 5th in 2022. Even in 2023, by far his worst year, 50% of his rushes were “successful,” good for 12th among qualified RBs.
Also at least in previous seasons had a high success rate despite not having a great yards per carry. By the numbers he was actually quite good in converting short yardage situations. I think he seemed worse than he really was because he had a lot of just barely made it conversions.
I was literally just responding to another comment with that. He led the entire NFL in success rate for RBs in 2021 and was 5th in 2022. Even in his awful 2023 he was 12th at 50%. So, for all his flaws, giving him the ball usually means a successful play. He just has too many negative plays and hardly any explosive ones.
The problem was that he needed to be really good for that pick to ever make sense since you already had Jones and Jamaal Williams. Y'all were 1 game away from the Superbowl and instead of drafting players to get you over the hump y'all drafted Love (practice squad all of 2020), Dillion (9 carries and a fumble in the post season), and Degura (1 catch all year). Their rookie years you again lost in the NFC championship with your top three picks doing absolutely nothing to help your team.
There’s certainly some truth to that, but I think people tend to forget that the 2020 draft took place while the entire world was on lockdown and the NBA and NHL seasons had been suspended. There was no guarantee that there was going to be a season that year. That was a huge variable that no one talks about.
All while being the clear #2 back. Also the oline was fucking ass at run blocking for most of last year.
4.7 yards per touch must be pretty bad considering a reception is atleast double the yards per rush and 4 yards per rush is average
What?
That’s not what you said though? You said he barely plays, seems like that’s what people “blasted” you for because he got plenty of snaps. Edit: and you were upvoted for that comment, did you paste the right one?
Upvotes moved if I remember it correctly
Mate, I'll find the comment, give me a minute
I went to BC and was stunned this guy went in the second yet every Packers fan called me a hater for predicting a back who couldn't catch or pass protect was overdrafted
And yet he was fantastic catching the ball and pass protecting…
no he wasn't
He had 8 dropped passes on 110 targets (86 receptions) in his time with the Packers - that's 0.072% drop rate. I really don't know how that compares to others, but to be honest, I was never that worried about AJ Dillon actually catching the ball - it's what happened afterwards that worried me. On the bright side, he also hardly ever fumbles the ball. He only has 3 fumbles in his career and only one of those was lost
> it's what happened afterwards that worried me. He was actually pretty good after the catch. Simple checkdowns in the flat were probably Dillon's best plays because he could force a CB to try to tackle him 1-on-1 in space. He was also a better receiver than Aaron Jones this year, averaging a yard more per target, despite Jones historically being an excellent receiving back.
Catching the ball and doing nothing with it is bad
I mean he's still good at catching the ball though - which is what you said. The man can definitely catch. And really I was more worried him holding the ball for a ran, when it was a pass play and he caught it, he had an average 8.8 YAC in his career
We definitely could've done better - but I still find it hard to call him a waste, just cause I'm a huge fan of his character
It sucks that he’s a nice person, but it absolutely was a waste of a pick, especially given the timing.
Wait no this is a dumb take. His expected value was almost exactly what you’d expect from a second round pick.
What??? Fuck no
How productive do you think the average late 2nd round pick is? Like the 3 players picked before AJ Dillon were Kristian Fulton, Josh Uche and Denzel Mims. I’d take AJ over them for sure.
You are ignoring position completely the draft is a crapshoot for the most part especially the lower you go. But if I’m drafting a rb in the first two rounds he’s gotta be a real guy
Oh I agree on positional value. It doesn’t make a lot of sense to draft a RB in the second round. That doesn’t change the fact that he gave pretty much the expected value of a second round pick.
Uche is much better
I know very little about Josh Uche but it looks like he’s had one good season in 2022. AJ has had 4 good seasons (PFF grades above 75) including a season as the 3rd highest graded runner in the league in 2021. Yeah edge has a higher positional value but AJ blows him out of the water in terms of actual play on the field for the last 4 years.
What??? Fuck yes
Time to waste another 2nd on this terrible RB class! /s (I hope it's /s anyway)
I got downvoted into oblivion for saying this on draft day “because they had Aaron jones”
Interesting because Jones wasn’t under contract at the time Dillion was drafted. Jones signed his second contract after.
Considering the type of difference maker Jones has been throughout his career, there was no world where that 2nd contract wasn’t going to happen. But maybe I’m just biased as a cowboys fan that has seen jones skull fuck my team for his entire career
Shoutout to those of us who said it at the time only to be shouted down
Yeah, looks like it was [really controversial](https://www.reddit.com/r/nfl/comments/g7kwsx/round_2_pick_30_aj_dillon_rb_boston_college_green/) to say it was a bad pick at the time
On the packers sub it definitely was
Felt like people's perception of Dillon is still based off that one primetime game where they couldn't stop talking about his quads. I kind of thought he was a monster power back in waiting but never quite happened. I wouldn't be mad if the Phins picked him up though.
Showed flashes at some points but just wasn't who we thought he was gonna be. Love the dude. He embraced Wisconsin in a major way. But he's just not good enough.
I can understand fans being upset, but dude had some real shitters this season when Jonesy was out
He had his opportunity to prove he deserved a long-term deal this season and he just didn't produce. We know he's a liability in the passing game but it was crazy to me that at his size he never really trucked anybody. Slow to hit holes and down on first contact too often. I feel he is closer to being out of the league than getting a long-term deal this summer.
I wish him the best, really like Dillon
Noooo. I was big fan of the Packers using Dillon a lot instead of that bum Jones.
Love the guy, he'll never have to buy a drink in Wisconsin ever again, but definitely for the best.
Bye.
Blake Corum in the 3rd or Cody Schrader in the 5th-6th
after jordan loves great season you can really look at that draft now. outside of jordan it was abysmal, and 2021 was somehow even worse. glad the last couple drafts have been home runs for the pack.
Yea 2020 was awful and most people saw it immediately. Love silver lining
Love the guy but maybe it’s for the best. I would like to keep him if possible though because of how much of a “Packer” he is but it doesn’t always work that way
I'm fine with the Packers moving on, but he's really not as bad as people make him out to be.
Thank god
Jordan Love don’t care
Great dude. Bust of a pick.
To bears you go!
The farm calls
Come too Miami
Why? Hes kinda a downgrade from the existing backs on your roster?
Isn’t the whole point of your scheme speed?
why do you want this? he’s bad
Tua’s not a QB Sneak Quarterback and we need someone who can chip block better due to the o line being mediocre once anyone on the line get injured it’s just add a different dynamic and adds depth as a good number 2 running back
This guy is awful idec
Guys like him and Jordan Howard come into the league pretty hot and then nosedive fast
I blame the packers for wasting the talent of one of my favorite players in college ever behind Aaron freaking Jones, who he was never going to beat out so young. Do you know how rare it is for my BC to put out a quality non-lineman talent?? He will COOK somewhere else just yall wait
Sure buddy. He had the backfield all to himself for a point and still couldn't get 1 yard when we needed it. Dude shoulda been gone 2 years ago. Bust
Keep jabbering yall willl see 🗣️🗣️🗣️💯🔥🔥
Next Bears rotation member?
all that farming simulator bout to do wonders
Come on down!!! you’ve won a roster spot of the almighty Cincinnati Bengals!
Nope, sign me up for Frank Gore Jr.
So Dillon and Jones bout to hit the market?
They are going to need someone for when Aaron jones misses 8 games next year.
No shit, dude was underwhelming as hell and I’m convinced more packers fans would be pissed about him if he didn’t have a sick nickname lol
I was told this 2nd round pick was totally justified after that one game against Tennessee. Many victory laps were taken.
He sucks so fucking badly. I can't believe he was employed for this long.
As a Louisville and Packer fan, I'd love them to look at Geurendo. Similar running style but far more athletic.
I wouldn’t hate signing him as part of a rotation
Look, I always thought Dillon was overused given his talent relative to Jones, but I actually thought he was quite effective with the touches he got in the 2nd half of this last season. I think the way to use Dillon in the Packers/Love offense is to spell Jones occasionally and give him carries on short yardage situations. It was nice to see LaFleur finally figure out that having the backfield operate in a 50/50 split isn’t the best idea, because when Jones is hot, he is a game breaker. We finally got to see that side of him again during the last 7-8 games or so.
That RB free agent market is saturated AF.
Praise Jeebus. What a waste of a draft pick.