Green Bay Packers: James Starks faces dirty work in 2015

The Green Bay Packers will be returning all of their starting eleven on offense in 2015, a rare luxury in the modern NFL. Eddie Lacy has been the hot name recently with the discussion of him being the number one player in fantasy football, but he won’t be able to reach his full potential without veteran backup James Starks taking some bullets for him.

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Starks is entering the final year of a contract that will leave him as a 30-year old unrestricted free agent in 2016. After running his way into the hearts of the Green Bay Packers faithful in the 2010 playoffs with 315 yards over four games, Starks has become a quality, albeit unspectacular, member of the backfield surrounding Aaron Rodgers.

In 2015, Starks will be tasked with keeping Lacy fresh in the truest sense. Lacy has emerged as one of the top weapons in the NFL while Starks is not an irreplaceable commodity, so I expect Mike McCarthy to give James Starks a heavy dose of mop-up duty later in games to physically protect the younger Lacy.

Dec 21, 2014; Tampa, FL, USA; Green Bay Packers running back Eddie Lacy (27) runs for a 44-yard touchdown in the first quarter against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Raymond James Stadium. Mandatory Credit: David Manning-USA TODAY Sports

Despite profiling as a 300-plus carry running back, Lacy totaled just 284 touches in 2013 and 246 this past season. The smaller workload in 2014 saw his yards-per-carry rise from 4.1 to 4.6, suggesting that Lacy has his greatest impact when he is kept fresh for December and January. A notoriously slow starter, Lacy has averaged just 3.12 yards-per-carry over his career in September.

A healthy Aaron Rodgers puts this Packers roster in the upper echelon of the NFL, which will likely bring a handful of games that are out of reach in the fourth quarter. Green Bay managed to win six games in 2014 by 17 points or more, while three blowouts ended with a 30-plus point difference. Having Eddie Lacy taking hits in the second halves of those games benefits nobody, and Mike McCarthy knows it.

Since carrying the football 133 times in 2011, Starks has averaged just over 80 carries per season, a number that he should approach in 2015 quite easily. I would be extremely surprised to see Lacy move over 300 carries barring an injury to Rodgers, so Starks will have one final opportunity to establish his free agent value.

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Starks has yo-yo’d above and below 4.0 yards-per-carry throughout his five-year career and is due to land back on the positive side. His 2013 campaign saw him nearly eclipse 500 yards on 89 carries (5.5 YPC), and the current offense should put him in a position to hover around 400 yards with a strong offensive line and defenses locked in on the other man in the backfield.

Earlier in Starks’ career, I’d hoped that he would hit free agency at a younger age and coming off a hot season. His long-legged, fall-forward running style consistently turns two yards in to four, and he has offered the Packers a level of stability at the position that many teams have struggled to find. His final season in Green Bay could see Starks cleaning up the garbage and collecting late bruises while Lacy steps fully into the spotlight, but Starks should handle the job just fine. He always has.

Next: Is Eddie Lacy worthy of top fantasy football ranking?

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