AJ Dillon: The NFL Running Back Who Goes by “Quadzilla” and Actually Earned It
The photo circulated without any press release or official announcement. It was just a locker room shot – AJ Dillon standing in shorts, legs planted – and within 48 hours it had been retweeted, screenshotted, and captioned so many times that “Quadzilla” stopped being a joke and started being a title. His quadriceps at 6 feet and 247 pounds look like they belong on a different species of athlete. The nickname stuck because the thing it described was plainly, visibly real.
Algiers Jameal William Dillon Jr. was born May 2, 1998. He grew up in Connecticut, started high school at New London, transferred to Lawrence Academy in Groton, Massachusetts – a private boarding school that gave him more offensive touches and a cleaner path to recruiting attention. By his junior year at Lawrence he had 1,887 rushing yards and 26 touchdowns. His senior season ended after four games with a broken leg, which would normally tank a prospect’s leverage heading into college decisions. It didn’t. He had already committed to Michigan, then flipped to Boston College, which turned out to be one of the more consequential recruiting decisions in Eagles program history.
What He Did at Boston College Doesn’t Get Enough Attention
In three seasons at Boston College, Dillon finished as the program’s all-time leading rusher with 4,382 yards, 38 rushing touchdowns, 40 total touchdowns, and a 5.2-yards-per-carry average. He was named ACC Rookie of the Year in 2017 after rushing for 1,589 yards on 300 carries as a freshman – a school record. First-team All-ACC three times. His 2019 junior season produced 1,685 rushing yards and led the entire conference.
The volume he absorbed is the part that gets glossed over. Thirty-plus carries per game was routine. Thirty-seven carries against Florida State. Forty carries in a single game against the same team in 2018. NFL scouts watching that workload weren’t just counting yards – they were watching whether he broke down late in games or got slower. He didn’t. His October 2017 game at Louisville: 29 carries, 272 yards, four touchdowns on the road. That was his coming-out moment as a prospect, and the conference noticed immediately.
He ran a 4.53 forty at the 2020 NFL Combine – 69th percentile for the position, not elite speed, but respectable for a man his size. His college dominator rating landed in the 82nd percentile. The profile said: productive, durable, physical, not a burner. Every team drafting a power back in the second round knew exactly what they were getting.
Green Bay Picked Him 62nd Overall and Then Used Him Carefully
The Packers took Dillon with the 62nd pick in the 2020 draft. Most independent analysts had him as a third-round grade at best, which made Green Bay’s choice a mild surprise on draft night. His four-year rookie deal came in at $5.3 million with a $1.4 million signing bonus. Head coach Matt LaFleur started him third on the depth chart behind Aaron Jones and Jamaal Williams, and for most of his rookie year, that’s where he stayed.
His first two NFL touchdowns came December 27, 2020, on Sunday Night Football against the Titans – 21 carries, 124 rushing yards, a 40-14 win for Green Bay. That was the clearest preview of what he could do when given the ball in space and behind a functioning offensive line. He finished the year with 46 carries, 242 yards, 5.3 yards per carry, two touchdowns. Quiet by volume, efficient by rate.
2021 was his real arrival. Jones stayed in Green Bay after free agency rumors faded, so Dillon never got the bell-cow opportunity some fantasy managers had priced in. But he carved out a genuine timeshare: 187 carries, 803 rushing yards, five rushing touchdowns, 34 receptions for 313 yards, two receiving touchdowns. The receiving numbers were the actual surprise. He had two drops on 151 routes run – nobody expected that kind of precision from a back who looked more like a fullback than a slot receiver. His best single game came in Week 10: 128 total yards, two touchdowns, including a 50-yard catch.
The Timeshare With Aaron Jones Was Always Going to Cap His Numbers
Jones was the more complete back – receiving skills, home-run speed, better yards-per-carry average in most seasons. Dillon was the hammer: short yardage, goal line, fourth-quarter clock management when Green Bay had a lead. LaFleur wasn’t going to abandon Jones for Dillon no matter how good a game Dillon had, and that was probably the right call for the team, even if it was frustrating for anyone who drafted Dillon top-12 in fantasy.
Through 2022 and 2023, Dillon’s efficiency slipped. His yards-per-carry went from 4.3 in 2021 to 4.0 in 2022 to 3.4 in 2023 – that last number, 61st among qualified backs, is hard to explain away with blocking or usage. He managed 178 carries across 15 games in 2023, logging just three breakaway runs of 15-plus yards all season. Jones was dealing with knee and hamstring injuries that should have opened the door for Dillon to take over. The volume went up. The explosion didn’t come with it.
Two Neck Injuries Wiped Out His Final Year in Green Bay
During joint practice with the Denver Broncos on August 16, 2024, Dillon suffered a neck stinger – the second one within eight months. The Packers placed him on injured reserve on August 28, when they finalized their 53-man roster, and that was his 2024 season. Gone before a regular-season snap.
LaFleur had said publicly that Dillon looked better than he ever had heading into that training camp. The offseason work he’d put into his body – whatever that meant specifically – never got tested against a defense. His five seasons with Green Bay ended at 597 carries, 2,428 rushing yards, 16 touchdowns, and a contract that expired quietly. The Packers moved on.
Philadelphia Was a Reset Year, Not a Comeback Story
In March 2025, Dillon signed a one-year deal with the Philadelphia Eagles – the reigning Super Bowl champions, a team with Saquon Barkley handling the lead back role and Will Shipley developing as the backup. Dillon’s path to meaningful touches was narrow from the start. He appeared in seven games, collected 12 carries for 60 yards (5.0 average), and left without making much of a statistical case for himself either way.
The 5.0 yards per carry on limited volume isn’t nothing. He was healthy, he played, he didn’t get hurt again. After missing an entire NFL season to a neck injury, that’s a reasonable baseline to build from. He declared free agency in March 2026.
Carolina Signed Him in March 2026
The Panthers agreed to terms with Dillon on March 18, 2026, adding him to a backfield that already included Chuba Hubbard, Jonathon Brooks, and Trevor Etienne. What Carolina was buying is specific: a 247-pound downhill runner who can function in short-yardage packages and take punishing carries in a game where the offensive line is trying to establish a physical identity. The Panthers described him directly as a “power element.” That’s accurate, and at 28 years old, Dillon still has the body for it.
Whether he sees 100 carries in 2026 depends on the depth chart competition and how the offense evolves under the new coaching staff. His career average of 4.1 yards per carry across 609 attempts gives Carolina something to work with. The Panthers aren’t asking him to be Saquon Barkley. They’re asking him to be AJ Dillon, which means third-and-one, fourth-and-one, and goal-line packages where his quads make him genuinely hard to stop.
The Dillon Family Foundation Is the Part of His Career That Actually Surprises Me
Most NFL players announce a charity partnership at some point. It shows up in a press release, gets mentioned in a few tweets, and fades. What Dillon and his wife Gabrielle have built in Wisconsin is different in scale and specificity – and I say that having looked at what they actually did, not just what was announced.
They launched the Dillon Family Foundation formally in July 2024, focused on food insecurity. But the groundwork started years earlier: they began volunteering with Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin in 2022, eventually helping pack 750,000 meals for kids in the region. Their “Carry for a Cause” campaign – where every rushing yard by a Packers back or quarterback at Lambeau Field triggered a donation of one backpack of food to a child in need – delivered 1,400 backpacks through House of Hope in Green Bay. Dillon and Gabrielle helped raise $250,000 for House of Hope separately.
The NFLPA named him Off-Season Community MVP. The Wisconsin State Assembly honored him with their Hometown Hero Award in 2025. Representative Joel Kitchens, who nominated him, called him “the Mayor of Door County” – a nickname Dillon has leaned into for years given how much time he and Gabrielle spend on the Door County peninsula, where he proposed to her and where they were married in Egg Harbor in 2022.
He also has a podcast (“Toonen to Dillon,” with his brother-in-law Will Toonen), a food blog with Gabrielle called “Dining with the Dillons,” and a children’s book. The book – “Quadzilla Finds His Footing,” illustrated by Summer Morrison and published by Orange Hat Publishing – launched in 2023 with a signing event at Lambeau Field. It follows a dinosaur named Quadzilla who discovers football through his friends, built around themes of teamwork and persistence. He has said he started writing it because he wanted something to share with his son, Algiers III, known as Trey.
The donation structure they built around his nickname is worth noting for how intentional it is: $28 gets a backpack of food donated in your name, $112 – a “Quad”ruple – gets you a Dillon Family Foundation hat. That’s not accidental branding. Someone thought carefully about how to make giving feel connected to who he is on the field.
Career Numbers, Without the Padding
67 games played across five seasons. 609 career carries, 2,488 rushing yards, 4.1 yards per carry, 16 rushing touchdowns. 89 receptions, 784 receiving yards, two receiving touchdowns. 18 total touchdowns. His best season by volume was 2021: 803 rushing yards, five touchdowns, 34 catches. His worst by efficiency was 2023: 3.4 yards per carry on 178 attempts, which is backup territory regardless of how you frame it.
At Boston College his numbers were: 2017 – 300 carries, 1,589 yards, 14 touchdowns; 2018 – 299 carries, 1,108 yards, 13 touchdowns; 2019 – 325 carries, 1,685 yards, 14 touchdowns. Three consecutive 1,000-yard seasons. The first player in program history to accomplish that. His 4,382 career rushing yards remain the Boston College record.
The one number that doesn’t appear in his box scores anywhere: the $250,000 raised for House of Hope in Green Bay. That one showed up in the community section of the Wisconsin State Assembly floor transcript, which is not where most running backs’ legacies get recorded.
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