GREEN BAY – The Packers have again addressed their dire running back situation, and they hope this time it works out.
Green Bay on Wednesday claimed running back Christine Michael off waivers from the Seattle Seahawks and placed running Don Jackson on injured reserve. The transactions were announced by general manager Ted Thompson.
The Packers have gotten almost no production at running back this season, due largely to injuries. Starter Eddie Lacy is out with an ankle injury, and backup James Starks returned last week from a knee injury after a month being sidelined. The team has used wide receivers Ty Montgomery and Randall Cobb, both of whom have also battled injuries, in the backfield.
Green Bay signed Jackson off its practice squad a month ago, but he was ineffective. Thompson even made a rare trade – his first in six years – to acquire running back Knile Davis from the Kansas City Chiefs on Oct. 18, but he was released two weeks later after getting only five carries.
Michael (5-foot-10, 220 pounds), whose first name is pronounced "KRIS-tin," is a fourth-year player out of Texas A&M originally selected by the Seahawks in the second round (62nd overall) of the 2013 NFL Draft. Following two seasons in Seattle, he was traded to the Dallas Cowboys before the start of the 2015 regular season. After being released by Dallas on Nov. 17, 2015, he spent a few weeks on the Washington Redskins’ practice squad before being signed to the Seahawks’ active roster on Dec. 16, 2015.
This year, Michael has started seven games and carried 117 times. He's already set career highs for rushing yards (469 yards), rushing touchdowns (six), receptions (20) and receiving yards (96). All of those numbers would lead Packers running backs. Only Aaron Rodgers has scored a running touchdown this season, which the quarterback wryly noted on Wednesday.
"I think I’ve been running it pretty good lately, you know, been trying to get out and get loose. But it’s just a matter of guys being healthy," Rodgers said of the struggling ground game. "Obviously with James back, you have more of a traditional running back there, but it doesn’t matter, stats-wise, if we’re running it a bunch or throwing it a bunch, we just need to find a way to win."
For Michael's career, he has started nine of 31 games in which he's played during the regular season, recording 966 rushing yards and six touchdowns on 223 carries (4.3 avg.) while also accumulating 124 receiving yards and a TD on 24 receptions (5.2 avg.). Michael has also appeared in two postseason contests, with one start. He'll wear No. 32 for the Packers.
After being signed off Green Bay's practice squad, Jackson rushed 10 times for 32 yards. He hurt his hand a few weeks ago but wasn't listed on the Packers' injury report at the time he was placed on IR.
Before the roster move was announced, head coach Mike McCarthy said Wednesday that "I always want to run the ball more" but he also wants to throw it a lot. Given how the 4-5 team has played recently, especially with the defense and special teams allowing early scores and Green Bay getting behind in the first quarter, the Packers have lacked offensive balance.
"That's the way games are," McCarthy said. "You have to run the football. Everything starts with running the football. You can't extend your offensive line and your pass-protection unit the way we have. Running the football is very important for a number of different reasons."
Green Bay plays at Washington in a nationally televised game on Sunday Night Football. It's unlikely Michael will be heavily involved, given he'll have just three days of preparation. Regardless, Rodgers said the team needs to be efficient on offense to get in a rhythm and snap its three-game losing streak.
"It’s important to get into the end zone, whoever gets in," Rodgers said. "I’ve been fortunate to get in a couple times this year, but however you get ‘em, we need to score points, especially in the red zone. We talk a lot about situational football, and the last couple weeks, our third down and our red zone percentages have been down from where they need to be.
"So we’ve got to pick that up, find ways to score touchdowns in the red zone and start fast. We’ve been obviously behind the last few games too many times, and we need to give our defense some confidence by putting up some early points on some early drives."
Born in Milwaukee but a product of Shorewood High School (go ‘Hounds!) and Northwestern University (go ‘Cats!), Jimmy never knew the schoolboy bliss of cheering for a winning football, basketball or baseball team. So he ditched being a fan in order to cover sports professionally - occasionally objectively, always passionately. He's lived in Chicago, New York and Dallas, but now resides again in his beloved Brew City and is an ardent attacker of the notorious Milwaukee Inferiority Complex.
After interning at print publications like Birds and Blooms (official motto: "America's #1 backyard birding and gardening magazine!"), Sports Illustrated (unofficial motto: "Subscribe and save up to 90% off the cover price!") and The Dallas Morning News (a newspaper!), Jimmy worked for web outlets like CBSSports.com, where he was a Packers beat reporter, and FOX Sports Wisconsin, where he managed digital content. He's a proponent and frequent user of em dashes, parenthetical asides, descriptive appositives and, really, anything that makes his sentences longer and more needlessly complex.
Jimmy appreciates references to late '90s Brewers and Bucks players and is the curator of the unofficial John Jaha Hall of Fame. He also enjoys running, biking and soccer, but isn't too annoying about them. He writes about sports - both mainstream and unconventional - and non-sports, including history, music, food, art and even golf (just kidding!), and welcomes reader suggestions for off-the-beaten-path story ideas.
