Working out at Packers OTAs, Lacy made his first on-field appearance with the slimmed-down look.
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Jordy Nelson’s pending return from a season-ending knee injury should play a huge part in the Packers’ offense resuming its explosive ways, but a repeat of Lacy’s career lows from 2015 (758 yards, 4.1 avg., three TDs) would likely hinder the collective effort.
Packers coach Mike McCarthy ensured that running back Eddie Lacy’s physical condition would be a running storyline this offseason when he said shortly after the team’s playoff loss to the Cardinals that Lacy “cannot play at the weight he did” in 2016.
“At the end of the day, we’re all grown men”, Lacy added. McCarthy’s lukewarm take suggested to me that he could live with where Lacy is now but was expecting a little better, perhaps based on those March photos. We just got along, you know what I mean? “You just take it as what it is and make it go away”.
“I feel like I handled it well, and I held up my end of the bargain”. “It’s a process. I’ve got to keep going and keep hoping for the best”.
When Lacy returned to Green Bay for the start of the offseason program in April, a source told ESPN.com at the time that Lacy had dropped 15 to 18 pounds. “So far so good”, the coach said. Eddie will be fine. “So it leads me to believe that by the time we get to training camp, from a fitness standpoint, he’ll be where we want him to be”.
The game film from the last few seasons shows that Lacy is one of the league’s top running backs when healthy and in reasonable football shape. Lacy called the online chatter about his weight “annoying”, but he understands it’s part of the deal and all but admitted he needed the “wake-up call” from McCarthy.
Fortunately for Lacy, he didn’t report for the start of Green Bay’s offseason program last month not almost as big as his well-chronicled inflated playing weight last season. He said Lacy couldn’t play this season at the same weight he did last season and challenged him to have a better offseason than he did in 2015.
McCarthy said the Packers have a body-composition standard for Lacy – presumably a percentage of body fat – not a weight.
But now, Eddie Lacy is back on track.
Just how much weight has Lacy lost? “This year, I just did a little bit more”.
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“I’m not going to get skinny like James Starks”, he said.
