The past few years have not been kind to former Green Bay Packers running back AJ Dillon.
A former second-round pick by the Packers in the 2020 draft, Dillon missed the entire 2024 season due to a neck injury. While he was cleared over the offseason and signed a one-year deal with the Philadelphia Eagles, his second act didn’t go well as he managed just 60 yards on 12 carries.
After being a regular inactive in the second half of the season, it appears that Dillon’s time in Philadelphia is coming to an end. But there may be a chance for a return after the Eagles hired former Packers assistant Ryan Mahaffey as their new run game coordinator and tight ends coach, according to Dave Zangaro of NBC Sports Philadelphia.
With former Packers quarterbacks coach Sean Mannion taking over as offensive coordinator, it appears the Eagles are looking to add some Green Bay flavor to their offense. That could open the door for Dillon to at least delay his breakup with the Eagles going into 2026.
Former Packers Coaches Could Buy AJ Dillon Another Season with Eagles
Dillon’s first season with the Eagles likely won’t make him a priority signing, but perhaps the desire to copy Green Bay’s running attack will be enough to bring him in for another look. The Eagles relied on a power blocking scheme for the past couple of seasons, and it did not play to Dillon’s strengths when compared to his 2021 performance.
According to Pro Football Focus, 65.9% of Dillon’s carries came in a zone-blocking scheme, and the results showed up in his stats, logging a career high with 803 yards and adding five touchdowns with a 61% success rate.
While we can’t make too big an assumption on Dillon’s 12 carries with the Eagles last season, we can look at the differences between the Packers and Eagles offenses. Saquon Barkley had a similar zone rate (64.3%) as the Packers did during Dillon’s 2021 season, but Eagles backups ran more in gap blocking schemes with Tank Bigsby, Will Shipley, and Dillon combining for 50.5% of their carries coming in gap blocking schemes.
The Packers, meanwhile, leaned on zone-blocking schemes a little more with their running backs.
Josh Jacobs had 57% of his carries come in zone-blocking schemes last year, and while 58.6% of Green Bay’s overall carries were zone-based. The addition of offensive line coach Chris Kuper also leans into this, as the Minnesota Vikings had a 58.6% rate on zone-based runs last season, including a 57.1% zone rate with leading rusher Jordan Mason.
Of course, there are some things that Dillon needs to clean up. The first concern is his neck injury, which healed to the point of helping him make the active roster last season but may have driven his poor performance. Second, Dillion hasn’t provided much explosiveness with 16 breakaway runs – defined by PFF as designed runs of 15 yards or more – over his career and a declining yards after contact number that dropped from 3.44 in his rookie season in 2020 to 2.69 in his final season in Green Bay.
At the end of the day, it looks like the Eagles' coaching changes might be enough to keep Dillon around Philly for one more season. The only question is, will he capitalize on his opportunity?