Green Bay Packers: Eddie Lacy Looking Forward to 2015

By Arty Vezikov | Jul 9, 2015

No matter how you look at it, the presence of running back Eddie Lacy brings balance to the Green Bay Packers offense. Balance that they have been lacking since, perhaps, the era of Ahman Green.

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Think about it. The Packers had it all in 2011… seemingly. Coming off a Super Bowl victory, the Packers came out firing. They averaged 35.0 points a game, were third in the league in passing, and Aaron Rodgers connected for 45 touchdowns with just six interceptions. Rodgers’ receivers that year? Jordy Nelson, Greg Jennings, Jermichael Finley, James Jones, Randall Cobb, and Donald Driver. Talk about stacked.

A 15-1 record simply wasted away. The key reason? There was no balance.

Running backs Ryan Grant and James Starks split carries that year and were only able to muster up 559 yards and 578 yards rushing, respectively. They combined for a whopping 3 rushing touchdowns. Why rush when you can throw on first, second, and third down?

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No one was scared of the Packers running game and when the weather turned cold, they had nothing to lean on. In the Divisional Round of the playoffs, the New York Giants rolled into town and made quick work of the Packers, putting them away 37-20. And if you remember correctly, Rodgers was the leading rusher that game with 66 yards on the ground. The passing game didn’t show up and there was no compensation for it.

Fast forward some 15 months later. Head coach Mike McCarthy vows to redo the running attack and Eddie Lacy falls to his lap with the 61st overall pick in the 2013 NFL Draft. Can one player really make all the difference? Fans have had two seasons already to make their own conclusions.

Benny Sieu-USA TODAY Sports

That brings us to today, with Lacy entering his third year in the league. Let’s take a look at his production last year and what that might mean going into the 2015 season. We’ll start with some hard numbers and try to make sense of them afterwards.

RB Eddie Lacy (5’11” / 230 pounds)

School: Alabama

NFL Season: 3rd

Lacy totaled 246 carries for 1,139 yards and nine touchdowns this past season, and also added 42 receptions for 427 yards and four scores.

Pro Football Focus graded him a +7.6 for rushing (seventh in NFL), +7.8 in receiving (second in NFL), and +4.0 for pass blocking (third in NFL). He was also credited with 63 forced missed tackles and gained 2.84 yards after contact per rush attempt, equating to a 69.4 Elusive Rating (third in NFL). Lacy dropped only one pass all year and gave up no sacks in pass protection all season.

He finished seventh in the league in rushing yards in 2014. His nine rushing touchdowns tied for third in the league, behind only Marshawn Lynch and DeMarco Murray.

Here’s where it gets interesting. McCarthy has committed himself to keeping Lacy fresh and limiting his carries. His 246 rushing attempts was ninth-best in the NFL. Those 246 carries are a long way off from Murray’s league-leading 392 rushes in the regular season.

“It’s a long season. You don’t want to get to game ten, eleven, and you’re pretty much dying,” Lacy told reporters in mid-June (via Packers.com) regarding conditioning.

Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

McCarthy wasn’t just shouting things into the wind; this was a designed strategy. McCarthy wanted to get Lacy a specific amount of carries per game and he stuck with that plan, even when it seemed the Alabama product was struggling to start the year. Via NFL.com, we can look at Lacy’s game-by-game regular-season performance in 2014.

In the month of September, Lacy averaged just over 13 carries for 40 yards and almost 2 receptions for 12 yards per game. Looking at October, Lacy averaged exactly 13 rushes for 66.8 yards and 3.5 receptions for 40 yards a game.

When November rolled around and the weather became colder, the touches began to increase. Lacy averaged 17.5 carries for 85.5 yards and 2.5 catches for 35.8 yards. Lacy found the end zone a total of five times during this month.

And in the final month of the season, Lacy rushed an average of 17.8 times for 92.3 yards and caught the ball an average of 2.8 times for 18.8 yards. He managed to score four times in December, with 3 out of 4 games in cold weather environments (at home twice and at Buffalo).

Even with some basic analysis, we can see Lacy’s carries increased as the year went on and the yardage went up as well. The big, bruising back also scored nine of his 13 total touchdowns in the last two months of the season, mind you.

Jeff Hanisch-USA TODAY Sports

After Rodgers, Lacy is arguably the most important piece of this offense because of the stability and balance that he provides. He was vital down the stretch and was only able to improve off of his rookie year.

“We have a chance to be great. You know, we were pretty good last year and this year we want to go all the way and we have everybody back plus some new guys in who are talented as well so we can definitely go far,” said Lacy in the locker room following practice last month.

Compared to 2013, Lacy carried the ball 38 fewer times in the regular season this year, reflected by his bump in average yards per carry (4.1 to 4.6). He was also a huge part of the receiving game as well, increasing his 35 receptions for 257 yards (no touchdowns) in 2013 to 42 receptions for 427 yards (4 touchdowns) this past season.

Given his size and rushing style, limiting carries is something McCarthy has and is going to continue to practice each season.

Lacy has proven, so far, that he is the missing piece in this offense. Many have described him as one of the most well-rounded backs in the league. As Ryan Ratty alluded to in a recent piece, this team has the ability to repeat its status as an offensive juggernaut with Lacy in the backfield.

January 18, 2015; Seattle, WA, USA; Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers (12) hands off to running back Eddie Lacy (27) against the Seattle Seahawks during the first half in the NFC Championship game at CenturyLink Field. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports

The reigning NFL MVP, quarterback Aaron Rodgers, is locked up long-term, the offensive line will remain consistent with last season, and the wide receivers are all ready to get back to work. The addition of several notable rookies is just icing on the cake.

When speaking of his offensive line, Lacy adds, “You know, those guys are tough. They don’t back down from nobody. And they’ve been playing together for a while now so they have the chemistry and they have the chemistry with Starks and I as well so they definitely have a chance to be real dangerous.”

“The Super Bowl’s at the end – that’s what you want to be strong for,” said Lacy with a reassuring chuckle.

Good thing Lacy is more than willing to bulldoze his way straight to the big game.

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