Eddie Lacy used to be all about question marks. There were teams who said they wouldn’t touch him in the draft. He slipped to the second round. Then he showed up to training camp fat.
Now the Green Bay Packers rookie running back is all the rage. All he had to do was get on the field, apparently.
Lacy made his Packers debut on Saturday night and he pounded the St. Louis Rams for 40 yards on eight carries. Lacy looked like the running back the Packers haven’t had since Ahman Green while doing it, too.
Afterward, Lacy didn’t have much to say about his performance…
“I want to take this moment and continue to get better,” Lacy said. “It’s a starting point.”
“I feel I can add an extra dimension to an already great offense.”
But others have taken notice…
“They got a steal getting (Lacy) where they got him,” one NFL scout told Bob McGinn. “I thought he was going to go earlier. He’s as advertised.”
Lacy’s impact has been magnified by the lack of impact anyone else has had in the running game. DuJuan Harris just returned to practice last week, but has yet to see game action. The other guys who have seen game action, have done next to nothing.
James Starks gained only four yards on Saturday and both Alex Green and Johnathan Franklin averaged a meager 3 yards per carry. It seems pretty clear now that none of those guys are going to spark the Packers ground game.
We know it’s only one game, but if the Packers are going to have a ground game, it looks like it’s going to be Eddie Lacy who provides it.