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

Kaleb Johnson's first game as a Packer is two lines in the play-by-play, and neither is an offensive snap. He was active — Green Bay's inactives were Ty'Ron Hopper, Aaron Banks, Travis Glover, J. Michael Sturdivant, Warren Brinson and Anthony Campbell, per Craig Peters at Vikings.com, and Johnson was not among them — and per Justis Mosqueda at Acme Packing Company he played no offensive snaps. He fielded two kickoffs. With two oh eight left in the third quarter, after T.J. Hockenson's touchdown cut it to 22 to 17, Will Reichard kicked 61 yards to the Green Bay four and Johnson brought it back 25 yards to the 29. With six 37 left in the fourth, after Aaron Jones's touchdown and the two-point conversion put Minnesota ahead 25 to 22, Reichard kicked 62 yards to the three and Johnson returned it 27 to the 30. Two returns, 52 yards; no carry, no target.

The drives he handed the offense are the football. The first, from the 29, reached the Minnesota 17 on a 42-yard throw to Matthew Golden and ended there with Jordan Love stopped for no gain on fourth and one. The second, from the 30, went three plays: Lloyd up the middle for −3, Love sacked for nine, Love sacked for 12 and stripped, Andrew Van Ginkel recovering at the eight and carrying it to the one. Green Bay ran 21 times for 66 yards, with Josh Jacobs on the Commissioner's Exempt list, and the carries went 13 to Lloyd for 37 yards, seven to Chris Brooks for 29, and one to Love. The 21 carries came out at −9.0 expected points added — expected points added is what a play was worth given down, distance and field position — and seven were successful. No Green Bay back scored; Lloyd and Brooks were thrown to once each, both incomplete.

The running was the smaller half by a wide margin. Green Bay ran eight times before halftime and 13 after against 19 pass plays and 27, and the passing game gained 387 yards to the ground game's 66. The carries after halftime were nine for Lloyd, three for Brooks and Love's one; none went to the back who had just returned the kickoff.

Back in June the preview called Johnson a watchlist, and it was written about a different depth chart: the 70-seventh running back at pick two 49, a third-round pick coming off a Pittsburgh rookie year of 28 carries and a healthy-scratch finish, third at best behind Jaylen Warren and Rico Dowdle, a stash you cut by September if those two split the work. He was in a Green Bay uniform Sunday, with Lloyd and Brooks splitting the work in front of him and his own work on the kickoff unit. None of the June case is confirmed by a game with no offensive touches, and none of it is settled; the preview never said Week One. Green Bay is at the Jets on Sunday the twentieth. The first number to look for is the first carry.

_Data via nflverse._