Packers Rumors: GM Brian Gutekunst Breaks Silence on Nate Hobbs Controversial Hit on Marshawn Lloyd

The Green Bay Packers are busily preparing for the 2025 NFL season as the players and coaches go through the practices and meetings of training camp. As quarterback Jordan Love recently stated, Green Bay’s primary goal this season is to win the Super Bowl. That being said, the immediate goal for each player is to get ready for the upcoming season, earn a spot on the 53-man roster, and stay healthy.

Unfortunately, as is the case for every NFL team, injuries are unavoidable. Every year, there are players injured during practice and preseason games, some of which are forced to miss time in the regular season, or the entire year altogether, as a result.

Last season, this is exactly what happened to 2024 third round pick Marshawn Lloyd, a running back whom the Packers drafted to compete for the backup job behind Josh Jacobs.

And while nothing is official as of yet, it sounds like it might have happened again.

Green Bay Packers Running Back Marshawn Lloyd Was Injured in Practice, Nate Hobbs Initially Blamed

On Monday, the Packers practiced in pads for the first time during training camp. Predictably, the practice session was more physical than their non-padded practice up to that point.

Unfortunately, it sounds like Lloyd has suffered an injury, and the immediate response from many was to blame new cornerback Nate Hobbs, who delivered a devastating hit on the second-year running back before he limped off the field.

Hobbs has been chastised by head coach Matt LaFleur in practice before for being too reckless and physical with his own teammates, and this incident resulted in him having to sit out for a while.

Lloyd did not return to practice.

On Tuesday morning, Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst revealed that Lloyd’s injury, in fact, was not caused by Hobbs. Instead, the second-year running back tweaked something in his leg on the run right before he was hit.

That does not, however, excuse Hobbs putting his teammate in harm’s way with the low hit that he put on him. All this being considered, though, the general manager is more than happy to, for once, have to tell a player to tone it down rather than play harder.

Per Matt Schneidman of The Athletic, Gutekunst said, “We’re trying to become a certain kind of football team that can win and win deep into the playoffs. There’s a certain kind of physicality you have to have and Nate Hobbs brings all that and that’s why we brought him here. It’s very important that all our guys have that kind of edge to ‘em.”

The challenge, as mentioned, is for Hobbs to find a balance to have that edge in practice while not hitting his own teammates as violently as he would opponents.