A.J. Dillon, a running back selected in the second round by the Green Bay Packers in 2020, never lived up to his draft potential.
It wasn’t really his fault, in a way. It’s plausible to argue that with pick No. 62, Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst actually made a run at Dillon out of Boston College. Nevertheless, it is indisputable that during the previous few seasons in Green Bay, Dillon never lived up to his full potential.
He was a massive 247-pound running back, but he never seemed to hit the hole hard enough and was too easy to take down. He also lacked explosiveness in the open field and as a pass receiver due to his size.
Dillon is no longer needed for Green Bay because Jones is now with the Minnesota Vikings and the Packers have moved on to Josh Jacobs, a running back with a similar bruising style but far more explosiveness, vision, and upside.
Although he was already unlikely to return to the Packers as an unrestricted free agent heading into this offseason, Jacobs’ signing virtually guaranteed his fate.
Dillon will undoubtedly find a new team as a free agent, so that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have options, but the reality is that he probably won’t be able to compete in the NFL today as anything more than a solid backup running back.
Though his four seasons in Green Bay were a disappointment for the Packers overall, that will make for a good career. Dillon will undoubtedly be remembered as Gutekunst’s lost selection because he never quite lived up to Aaron Jones’s hype, at least not consistently.
It was one of his rare misses, but still, a miss.