After averaging better than 4 yards per carry and totaling over 1,100 rushing yards in each of his first two seasons, Packers running back Eddie Lacy finds himself slumping in his third year. After six games, Lacy is averaging 3.9 yards per attempt, and has compiled just 260 yards and a lone touchdown on the ground.
If you recall, prior to Lacy's rookie season, after the Packers' selected him in the second round of the 2013 NFL Draft, a certain photo of Lacy made waves across the Internet. That photo seemed to show an overweight Lacy.
Wait... did Eddie Lacy EAT Johnathan Franklin? Look at the difference btwn these photos. Just an unflattering angle? pic.twitter.com/AvJDICHT6J
— David P. Woods (@davidpwoods) July 29, 2013
Folks quickly forgot about that photo once Lacy's rookie season took off. But now that Lacy is struggling for the first time of his career, it's time to ask that question, the one that has eluded us since the summer of 2013.
Is Lacy overweight?
His head coach, Mike McCarthy, only added fuel to the discussion when he said he wouldn't talk about his players' weights and then proceeded to say that Lacy has gotten bigger over the years.
"I'm not going to get into guy's weights," McCarthy said Wednesday, via ESPN. "I mean, I've never been asked a question about a guy's weight. But I think players do get bigger in their career. But he's bigger than he was as a rookie."
So, now that McCarthy has stoked the fire, let's get into the numbers. In 2013, at the NFL combine, Lacy weighed 231 pounds. Currently, the Packers' website lists Lacy at 234 pounds, which doesn't really show a significant change in weight. But according to ESPN, Lacy weighed 242 pounds at the beginning of training camp this summer. Could the Packers' website be low-balling his weight?
On Thursday, Lacy denied that his weight is a problem.
"I'm not the smallest person," Lacy said. "Brandon Jacobs wasn't the smallest person. Jerome Bettis wasn't the smallest person. Some people can just play like that, not that I'm Jerome Bettis' weight or nothing like that. I'm just saying, not everybody's meant to look like Adrian Peterson or somebody like that."
Lacy added that the rumors are only based on photos.
"It's based off of photos that float around, so that's not none of my concern until it comes from the guy upstairs on the third floor," Lacy said. "Until it comes down from there, I'm not concerned about it."
Regardless, there's another factor that can probably explain Lacy's struggles. During the Packers' Week 2 win over the Seahawks, Lacy sprained his ankle. In the Packers' most recent game against the Chargers, he carried the ball just four times, gaining 3 yards.
Now that Lacy has had time to heal up during the Packers' bye-week, perhaps he'll return to his prior form. Unfortunately for Lacy, he'll face the Broncos' top-ranked defense this Sunday.
