The Green Bay Packers have made a roster move to strengthen their backfield just three practices into their 2025 NFL training camp.
According to NFL insider Aaron Wilson, the Packers claimed third-year running back Israel Abanikanda off the waiver wire from the San Francisco 49ers on Friday, adding a former fifth-round draft selection and college football record-setter to their roster.
“Good opportunity for former @pittfootballfam running back #49ers Israel Abanikanda in Green Bay as he joins #Packers off waivers, per a league source,” Wilson wrote on X.
The Packers will have seven running backs signed to their 90-man camp roster once Abanikanda’s addition becomes official, but one of the backs contending for a reserve role with the team — undrafted rookie Amar Johnson — is on the active/non-football injury list and is ineligible to practice with the Packers until he passes his physical.
Israel Abanikanda Has Struggled to Earn NFL Role
Abanikanda played in six games and rushed 20 times for 70 yards as a rookie for his original team, the New York Jets, in 2023. Despite making the roster in 2024, though, the Jets gave priority to rookies Braelon Allen and Isaiah Davis behind Breece Hall and left him inactive for their first 12 games before putting him on waivers in December.
The 49ers claimed Abanikanda off waivers, but they did not play him down the stretch of the 2024 season. And while they kept him on their roster through the 2025 offseason — as his rookie deal runs through 2026 — they waived him two days into training camp.
Even still, Abanikanda has appeal to the Packers given how successful he was in college, especially with the No. 3 role in their backfield rotation unsettled at this stage of camp.
At Pitt, Israel Abanikanda Set & Tied Multiple Records
Abanikanda hasn’t found a meaningful role at the NFL level just yet, but there are signs that he still possesses untapped potential based on how he performed in college at Pitt.
After a quiet freshman season, Abanikanda seized a more consistent role in Pitt’s three-man rotation as a sophomore, taking 123 carries for 651 yards and seven touchdowns. It wasn’t until his 2022 junior season, though, that he took an astronomical leap forward.
In 11 games as Pitt’s primary ball-carrier in 2023, Abanikanda took 239 carries for 1,431 yards and 20 touchdowns, averaging 6.0 yards per carry and finishing just two games with fewer than 100 rushing yards. He also averaged 143.4 scrimmage yards per game.
In the team’s sixth game against Virginia Tech, Abanikanda made history when he ran for 320 yards and six touchdowns. His rushing total broke the single-game program record of 305 yards that former NFL All-Pro Tony Dorsett set in 1975, while his scoring total tied the single-game rushing touchdown record for both Pitt and the ACC.
While Abanikanda’s production hasn’t translated to the NFL, it is more than enough for the Packers to take a flier on him — especially if they feel they need more rushing depth.
Could Abanikanda Make Serious Push for RB3 Role?
Abanikanda will now have an opportunity to compete for a role with the Packers and is arriving early enough that he has the potential to become more than just a camp body.
Will the former fifth-round pick make a serious push for the No. 3 rusher role, though?
It won’t be an easy endeavor for Abanikanda. The Packers have superstar Josh Jacobs at the top of their depth chart coming off a season in which he handled more than 300 total carries. They also welcome back MarShawn Lloyd, a 2024 third-round pick who missed most of his rookie year with injuries, as their presumptive change-of-pace back.
Additionally, Emanuel Wilson is back and angling for the No. 3 role in the rotation after he stepped up in Lloyd’s absence and ran for 504 yards and four touchdowns last year. While he is not definitively penciled in as the team’s third-string running back, it would likely take another back having an undeniable camp for him to lose his projected spot.
Abanikanda could still pull it off, but the scale is currently tipped against him and the team’s other roster-hopeful running backs, including third-year rusher Chris Brooks.
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