I’ve been writing and podcasting about the Packers in some form since 2012. I don’t know if I’ve actually learned anything about football in that span.

I mean, I have, but football breeds an aggressive form of the Dunning-Kruger effect. The more I think I’ve learned about this game, the less I feel I actually know. By 2035, every episode of Blue 58 is going to boil down to something along the lines of “touchdowns good, I think?”

But if there’s anything that’s been impressed upon me, it’s the absolute fact that there is an incredible amount of the game that’s not captured by any stat, advanced or otherwise. Call it the human element, call them intangibles, there are things that happen in this game that cannot be measured, and would probably defy measurement even if we tried.

Take the story of Patrick Taylor, the victim and beneficiary of the NFL’s complex roster machinations. Cast off by the Packers earlier this season after it was no longer viable to promote and relegate him from and to the practice squad, he caught on with the New England Patriots, where he languished on their practice squad for a month.

But when the injury bug bit the Packers’ running back room in their win over the Chargers, Taylor got the call, suddenly the only healthy back on the roster other than AJ Dillon with game experience in the Packers’ offense.

Normally, a last-minute roster replacement would be an insurance policy at best, but not Taylor. He played 27 snaps on offense, the third-most he’s ever played in a Packers uniform. He carried the ball three times for 11 yards and also added two catches for three yards. You’d think that would be notable enough, but he also played 14 snaps on special teams, the second-most he’s ever played in a game. For good measure, he threw in a tackle on the opening kickoff of the second half.

Taylor’s Thanksgiving output was in no way statistically notable. No one will write home about the time they saw Taylor bust off a five-yard run during the Packers’ 2023 Thanksgiving beatdown of the Lions. But in making what I think we can call a pretty triumphant return to the Packers’ roster, Taylor proved his value yet again, something he’s had to do on a daily basis since he arrived in the NFL.

I have a special interest in Taylor, who we correctly identified as a Packers’ fit during the 2020 pre-draft process, but even if his ongoing NFL career didn’t represent a (very small) victory, it’s a great story of human perseverance. He’s overcome injury, draft status, and the cruel economics of professional sports to carve out an opportunity for himself, one that he makes the most of each and every week. I don’t know if you’d even want to put a stat on that if you could.