The good news is the Green Bay Packers will have James Starks available for the first time in three weeks. The bad news, at least for Eddie Lacy (and maybe your fantasy team), is that apparently means Lacy will be getting fewer carries.
While Starks was out with a knee injury, Lacy ran for 301 yards and cemented himself as the Packers’ No. 1 running back. He averaged 22 carries per game during those three contests.
Now the Packers say they’re going to limit Lacy to 15 to 18 touches to make sure he stays fresh.
“Split the rest (of the touches) up with James (Starks) and Johnathan (Franklin), keep (Lacy) fresh,” said Alex Van Pelt, the Packers’ running backs coach. “Not so much for the game, I don’t think that’s the issue, I think he could carry it 30 times on a day. But I wouldn’t want to do that in consecutive games. We’re talking about November, December, January having him still feel good, be fresh and healthy then.”
The old running back by committee. Woooooo!
Look, it’s great that the Packers have so many talented backs, but we’ve seen how this approach has worked in the past. Nobody gets any sort of rhythm going and all the backs look mediocre.
You’ve finally got a workhorse. Work him!
If he gets injured or isn’t fresh, you’ve got two other guys who’ve rushed for over 100 yards in a game this season. But this is Eddie Lacy. He’s 22-years-old, not 30.
Guys like that don’t fade down the stretch.