Kaleb Johnson

More episodes

• Week 5Oct 12, 2026

  Kaleb Johnson — Week 5: 23 of His 26 Yards on One Run

  Johnson ran 7 times for 26 yards against the Bears, all in the fourth quarter of a 31-7 win in Green Bay.

• Week 4Oct 6, 2026

  Kaleb Johnson — Week 4: Thirty-One Yards, Then the Fumble

  Johnson led the Packers with 8 carries for 42 yards, including a 31-yard run to the Tampa Bay 5 that set up the third-quarter touchdown. On first and goal at the Tampa Bay 3 with 9:13 left, up 17–14, he fumbled, the costliest snap of the game by expected points, in a 17–14 win over the Buccaneers.

• Week 3Sep 26, 2026

  Kaleb Johnson — Week 3: Four Carries, Six Yards, One Catch

  Johnson carried 4 times for 6 yards, with no first down and a longest of five, and caught 1 of 3 targets for 10 yards and a first down; a 5-yard run in the first quarter came back on a holding penalty. Eight carries in Week 2 became four, tied with MarShawn Lloyd, on a night Green Bay ran 9 times for 17 yards, in a 35–14 loss to the Falcons.

• Week 2Sep 21, 2026

  Kaleb Johnson — Week 2: Eight Carries, Most on the Team

  A week after playing no offensive snaps, Johnson led the Packers with 8 carries for 32 yards and three of their four rushing first downs, with runs of 12 and 11, the second of them the first play of the winning drive in overtime. He also fumbled once, recovered by Jordan Love, and had no target, in a 20–17 overtime win over the Jets.

• Week 1Sep 14, 2026

  Kaleb Johnson — Week 1: Two Kick Returns, No Offensive Snaps

  Johnson was not on the Packers' inactive list Sunday, per Craig Peters at Vikings.com, and per Justis Mosqueda at Acme Packing Company he was active and played no offensive snaps. His name is in the play-by-play twice, both on kickoff returns: twenty-five yards to the Green Bay twenty-nine in the third quarter and twenty-seven yards to the thirty in the fourth. Green Bay ran twenty-one times for sixty-six yards, thirteen carries to MarShawn Lloyd and seven to Chris Brooks, in a 39–22 loss to the Vikings.

• Camp · Aug 31, 2026Aug 31, 2026

  Kaleb Johnson Camp Update — August 31: Traded to Green Bay on Cut Day

  Pittsburgh traded Kaleb Johnson to Green Bay on Sunday for a sixth-round pick, pending a physical. Eight days after our last episode asked whether he would survive Pittsburgh's cut, he lands in a backfield whose lead back went to the Commissioner's Exempt List the same day.

• Camp · Aug 23, 2026Aug 23, 2026

  Kaleb Johnson Camp Update — August 23: The Grades Say No Burst

  Kaleb Johnson played against the Jets and the beat's review was blunt: limited effectiveness, lacked burst, couldn't make defenders miss. With Warren and Dowdle taking five carries each and cutdown a week away, the path June called hard to see has not widened.

• Camp · Aug 16, 2026Aug 17, 2026

  Kaleb Johnson Camp Update — August 16: Two Carries While the Fourth Back Got Ten

  Kaleb Johnson got two carries for three yards, late in the preseason opener, while Lew Nichols took a team-high ten carries and scored. One beat writer reads it as roster trouble. The June skepticism about his path is aging well, which is bad news.

• 2026 PreviewJul 4, 2026

  Kaleb Johnson 2026 Season Preview — what repeats, what doesn't

  Johnson's 2025 rookie season produced 8.3 half-PPR points across 10 games, an average of 0.8 per game that reflects a back who never secured a consistent role in Pittsburgh's backfield. A season built almost entirely on scarcity of opportunity rather than efficiency offers little in the way of repeatable inputs heading forward.

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  Kaleb Johnson was a third-round pick a year ago and finished his rookie season as a healthy scratch — 28 carries, 69 yards, a special-teams gaffe that became a highlight for the wrong reasons. And the market still has him at pick two-49, running back 77, because draft capital buys a year of patience. This episode is about a lost rookie year, a rebuilt coaching staff, and a backfield that got more crowded, not less.

  The season: 10 games with a stat line, 28 carries for 69 yards, one catch, no touchdowns. On Half-PPR scoring that is eight-tenths of a point a game — 80-eighth among backs per game, a hundred-sixth in total. There is no way to dress this up: it is one of the quietest rookie lines a third-round back has posted, capped by three weeks as a healthy scratch to close the year. Whatever Pittsburgh saw on draft night, the rookie tape did not show it.

  The career arc is one bad season, so we read it as what it is: a talented college back whose first NFL year went sideways, on and off the field. The draft profile — a downhill one-cut runner with real college production — is the entire reason to care; the pro season actively argues against it.

  The pattern beat has nothing to hold, and that is the point. His touchdown share is zero, so nothing regresses. Aging does not apply in year two. And every forward-looking pattern we trust needs a base of production, which Johnson never gave the league. The library is silent on him, and a draft grade cannot fill that silence — this is a bet on the scout's eye, not the base rates. For a third-round back a near-invisible rookie year is not disqualifying on its own — plenty of runners find their footing in year two — but it does mean the market is buying a projection with nothing underneath it yet.

  The situation got worse for him, not better. Mike Tomlin stepped down and Mike McCarthy took over as head coach, with Brian Angelichio coordinating, per the reporting — a brand-new staff with no attachment to the pick that drafted him. Kenneth Gainwell left in free agency, but Pittsburgh signed Rico Dowdle, a back McCarthy coached in Dallas, who projects as a co-lead alongside Jaylen Warren. So Johnson sits third at best on a depth chart that just added a starter in front of him. McCarthy's public line was a clean-slate, everybody-competes message — encouraging in tone, non-committal in substance. The talent that made him a third-rounder is still in there; the runway to touches got shorter.

  The price: running back 77 at pick two-49. The slot pays about two points a game; he produced eight-tenths. Our verdict: watchlist. The market is paying for the draft capital and a possible year-two turnaround, not for the rookie tape — a defensible dart at a last-round price, but the new staff and the Dowdle signing make the path to volume truly hard to see. The caveat both ways: if Johnson wins back the staff and an injury opens the room, the college profile says there is a runner here worth a free pick — and if Warren and Dowdle split the work as expected, this is a stash you cut by September.

  Watch the camp pecking order behind Warren and Dowdle first, then whether the new staff trusts Johnson with early-down work, then any sign the ball-security and special-teams issues are behind him. The talent bought him a year; the depth chart is spending it. If he's one of your guys, this show exists for your whole roster — every player, every week, all season.