The Green Bay Packers will be great in 2016, but can their running game get going? Starks earned the number one spot and must lead by example once again.
Dan Salem and Todd Salem debate in today’s NFL Sports Debate. Two brothers from New York yell, scream, and debate sports.
TODD:
The Green Bay Packers enter 2016 with high expectations, specifically for their offense. Jordy Nelson is back healthy this season, ready to propel the unit to the top of the NFL. However, the one piece of this group that has been lacking is the rushing attack. The pieces are all there: a former early round pick with high pedigree and high talent; a fearsome passing attack that frees up the box; a veteran and experienced offensive line. But the running game has lagged far behind.
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It isn’t a stretch to say Aaron Rodgers was the team’s most effective runner last season. He averaged nearly six yards per carry and scored once on the ground. That latter point may not seem like much, but the Packers as a team had just eight total rushing touchdowns, and no one had more than Eddie Lacy with three.
Lacy is the main culprit for this team’s underachieving. He has not been a bust since being drafted in the second round in 2013 out of Alabama, but results are falling short of expectations, particularly after the way last season transpired.
Lacy was so bad in 2015 that he was often benched in favor of career backup James Starks. Out of the two, Starks was the one who broke huge plays, and he was the one who was a consistent force in the passing game as well. Lacy finished the year with a career-worst 4.1 yards per carry and just 20 catches all season long.
He was fat. There is no way to tiptoe around the facts. Lacy was out of shape. Offseason reports say that he has slimmed down. Grabbing a headline out of the world of baseball, Lacy is entering this year “in the best shape of his life.” I’ll believe it when I see it.
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The interesting thing with Lacy is his first two seasons were very solid, if not quite reaching the heights of what folks were hoping. But the third season was a killer. It was when he was supposed to take the leap; he was expected to be the top back in the NFL in 2015 or at least one of the top three. Instead, he fell from grace into a timeshare with a former sixth-round pick and became completely untrustworthy.
Does he deserve to get that trust back? Can Green Bay really roll him out there (figuratively of course) in the starting lineup in 2016? Maybe the answer is yes by default, since Starks doesn’t have a ceiling worthy of swapping out Lacy for. But I’m not convinced Starks couldn’t be the better option for this team.
DAN:
What makes you think the ceiling for James Starks is so low? If Lacy could fall so far in one single year, why can’t Starks continue his climb from last season to be the dominant rusher the Packers need on offense? The truth is somewhere in between for both players, but Starks deserves the starting job.
Green Bay was 12th in the NFL last season, averaging 115.6 rushing yards per game. While its true that Lacy led the team with 758 yards on the ground, he did so over 187 attempts. Starks put up 601 yards on only 148 attempts. That’s 150 more yards for Lacy on 40 more attempts running the football. Not good. Both players averaged 4.1 yards per carry. While you noted it was a step back for Lacy, it was the same average he had in his rookie year. Starks, on the other hand, put up 5.5 yards per carry in that same 2013 campaign. Needless to say, he’s been the more productive back with the football when given the opportunity.
The passing game heavily favors Starks as well. If it comes down to the more productive player or the one with freshest legs, that too is likely James Starks. Over the last three seasons he’s been utilized significantly less by the Packers than Lacy. In 2015 he received the most touches of his career, because Lacy took a step back, but he was not used as much as his counterpart none the less. His legs are fresher and he’s proven to gain more yards on the ground and through the air.
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Ultimately I’m not sure Green Bay needs to pick one guy over the other. I’m a big fan of two running backs splitting time and keeping defenses off balance. The beating that running backs take is enormous, so having two players split it is smart. So is rolling with the hot hand as your number one, and that’s Starks.