The average career of an NFL running back lasts about three seasons. While there are a few rare exceptions, like Ameer Abdullah or Derrick Henry, it remains an incredibly volatile position due to the physical nature of the sport and the physicality of the position.
With that in mind, over the past decade, NFL teams have rarely given big-time extensions at the position, preferring to get the most out of guys on their rookie contracts before moving on to someone with fresher legs and less expensive.
Only recently has the position started to see a resurgence in players on their second or even third contracts, though these have typically been seen as exceptions and not the rule.
The Green Bay Packers helped buck this trend, having given Aaron Jones a big extension back in 2021, before ultimately cutting him after the 2023 season to go with Josh Jacobs, who played out his rookie deal with the Las Vegas Raiders before playing the 2023 season on the franchise tag. Green Bay inked Jacobs to a four-year deal, slated to pay him through his age-29 season.
Of course, after Jacobs pleaded no contest to misdemeanor charges of battery and criminal damage to property, his future in Green Bay is uncertain. A suspension feels inevitable, but it has not yet been handed down by the league office.
Will the Packers end up keeping him? With Jacobs currently on the commissioner's exempt list, Green Bay was extremely thin at the position, especially given MarShawn Lloyd's injury history, and ended up making a very quiet trade for Kaleb Johnson, who could end up having a massive impact.
Kaleb Johnson has a second chance to prove himself in Green Bay
It's hard to imagine that a player entering their second season would "need" a second chance in the NFL, but Johnson fits that description to a T. Pittsburgh selected Johnson in the third round of the 2025 NFL Draft out of Iowa following a stellar junior season for the Hawkeyes. Initially expected to be a key contributor for the Steelers, Johnson quickly found himself behind Kenneth Gainwell and Jaylen Warren.
Johnson would end up appearing in 10 games, recording just 28 carries for 69 yards, good for fourth on the team, just behind Jonnu Smith's 70 yards. The production failed to match the hype, given his combination of size and burst. Still, it was hard not to be hopeful about what could be with a full NFL offseason under his belt.
Once Green Bay made the trade for Johnson, it was easy to see why. Johnson had reportedly been on the Packers' radar ahead of the 2025 draft, but Pittsburgh landed him before Green Bay could. After acquiring Johnson, general manager Brian Gutekunst compared the situation to the franchise landing Ahman Green back in 2000, a guy who needed a second chance to find his NFL fit.
"Sometimes it takes time to adjust to the NFL," Gutekunst said.
"He had a couple hiccups there early in the season that maybe affected him for the rest of the year. Sometimes that happens. We've seen a number of players stub their toe with other teams and then get a new opportunity and just take off. The Ahman Greens of the world, so to speak. There's been a number of those guys, those stories aren’t unusual. We’re hopeful this will be one of those."
Why Packers fans should be optimistic about Kaleb Johnson
Tyler Brooke of Best Available put together a film breakdown of Johnson ahead of the Packers' season opener against the Vikings. In it, he points out why Johnson may have fallen down the Steelers' depth chart, starting with some of his 2025 preseason game footage, where he shows he is overeager to try to cut back, relying on his speed and power to get where he wants to go instead of taking what the defense is giving.
As the film breakdown continues, with both regular-season footage from last year and this year's preseason, you can see Johnson adjusting to the NFL level a bit more as time goes on. Even this preseason, you see a willingness to exploit the gap that is there and use his body to take on defenders instead of shying away.
While it may not have worked in Pittsburgh, his skill set transfers to Green Bay extremely well. The Packers run a lot more inside-zone concepts, very similar to the scheme the Hawkeyes ran when he recorded over 1,500 yards and scored 21 times.
Additionally, with Jacobs likely to miss time, the Packers are expected to go with a committee approach at running back to start the season, given Lloyd's lack of NFL experience and Chris Brooks' limitations outside of pass protection.
The opportunity for Johnson to step up and succeed is there. If he can find his footing with the Packers, he may end up defying the average career span of running backs. It will be interesting to see how many snaps the former third-round pick sees against a very aggressive Vikings defense in Week 1.
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