Is Eddie Lacy Going to Play Ever Again
Ben Margot/Associated Press
Supported by the highest-rated passer in NFL history and a bang-up defense, there were incredibly high hopes for third-year Greenish Bay Packers running dorsum Eddie Lacy entering 2015. The 2013 second-round option averaged 5.2 yards per rushing endeavor during the last 7 games of his sophomore NFL season and was expected to pick up even more steam at the age of 25.
Vi weeks doesn't brand a season, but it's safe to say that Lacy has fallen well short of those expectations every bit nosotros approach the midway point of the 2015 campaign.
Lacy is averaging but 3.9 yards per acquit, which is 0.7 yards lower than his 2014 average and ranks 25th amidst the 37 backs with at least 50 attempts. Vi weeks in, 22.iv percent of his rushes have gone for zero yards or a loss, which is upwardly from 19.1 pct in 2014. And he's gained 10-plus yards only 10.4 percent of the fourth dimension, which is down from xv.4 percent last season.
| Eddie Lacy's career at a glance | ||
| Category | Outset 2 seasons | 2015 season |
| Yards/game | 96.8 | 57.2 |
| Yards/carry | iv.4 | three.ix |
| Touchdowns | 24 | 1 |
| Pro Football Reference | ||
His per-game receiving numbers have also been cut in half, and after scoring 24 touchdowns in the first 31 games of his career, he'southward plant paydirt just once in six weeks this flavor.
As a consequence, Lacy'south coming off a game in which he was essentially benched for backup James Starks. He carried the ball just four times in Lord's day's victory over the San Diego Chargers, mark the first time in his career in which he'south had fewer than 10 rushes while healthy.
| Worst games of Eddie Lacy'southward career | |||
| Game | Att. | Yards | Circumstances |
| Week half dozen, 2015 | 4 | three | Outplayed past backup |
| Calendar week two, 2015 | three | ix | Injured in 1st quarter |
| Week 2, 2013 | 1 | 10 | Injured in 1st quarter |
| Week 13, 2013 | x | 16 | Team was blown out |
| Week 5, 2015 | 13 | 27 | Couldn't discover daylight |
| Pro Football Reference | |||
What'southward going on with a guy whom many selected early on in the first round of fantasy drafts but is now on pace to rush for fewer than 700 yards? Some possibilities...
He's hurt
He wasn't listed on the Week 6 injury report, which is bizarre because Packers head omnibus Mike McCarthy noted on Monday that Lacy is "trounce upwardly."
He did miss the vast bulk of Green Bay's Week 2 victory over the Seattle Seahawks due to an ankle injury and had only 10 carries on 31 snaps the side by side week against the Kansas City Chiefs, and so it'southward fair to wonder if—despite his absenteeism from the injury report—Lacy is far from 100 percent.
Notwithstanding, being banged upward is function of the chore, and that hasn't stopped Lacy in the past. Even if you remove Calendar week 2 from the equation, he's averaging simply 35.4 offensive snaps per game, which is well beneath his averages of 49.3 from 2014 (when he was express early on by a concussion) and 48.iv from 2013 (when he was hampered past another concussion every bit well equally a balky ankle).
The major departure this yearmight exist that the Packers are actually feeling the 29-yr-old Starks, who had 24 touches and 106 yards from scrimmage in relief of Lacy in Week 2, carried the brawl 17 times the next calendar week against Kansas City and was too hot to get out on the demote Sunday against San Diego.
"Nosotros're a i-2 dial squad," McCarthy said of the duo after Starks seized the master role Sun by rushing for 91 yardsin the offset quarter, per Michael Cohen of the Milwaukee Journal Watch. "It's actually no different than the fashion nosotros operate. We went with James first simply because he's been playing extremely well, and Eddie has been a lilliputian banged up."
In other words, we may be witnessing a bit of a Wally Pipp.
There take also been questions regarding Lacy's conditioning. In the same jiff above, McCarthy denied that being an issue, and there'due south no bodily evidence that the already hefty Lacy gained weight in the offseason or came into 2015 out of shape.
We'll requite him the do good of the doubtfulness there for at present, merely it's a factor to consider if he continues to struggle and lose ground to Starks.
Tough schedule
In Lacy's defence force, the Packers accept gone up against some stingy defenses since he scored his only touchdown of the yr and accumulated 99 yards from scrimmage in Week 1 against the Chicago Bears.
- The following week, Lacy was injured early against a Seattle team that ranked second in football with an opponent yards-per-try average of 3.4 in 2014 and ranks quaternary with a 3.6 mark this flavour.
- Despite being hobbled the next week, he withal managed to average 4.6 yards per carry on 10 attempts against a talented Chiefs front vii that has also surrendered just 3.vi yards per blitz this yr. In that game, Starks had only 32 yards on 17 carries.
- He likewise had a strong performance (18 carries for 90 yards) Calendar week 4 against the San Francisco 49ers, while Starks struggled (nine for 28).
- He struggled in Calendar week 5 (13 for 27) against very potent, swarming St. Louis Rams front 7, and then did Starks (v for 17).
- And he never really had a chance to get going with Starks on fire against a bad Chargers D in Week half-dozen.
And so maybe luck just hasn't been on Lacy'southward side. Only it won't get a lot easier, because afterwards their Calendar week seven farewell the Packers take on solid defenses in Denver, Carolina and Detroit.
A lack of continuity from the offensive line
While quarterback Aaron Rodgers has been as good as ever, at that place's evidence that problems with the right side of the offensive line and the tackle positions have hurt Lacy's productivity.
During his first two years in the league, regular offensive line starters missed a total of three of a possible 160 private starts, and Green Bay had the same starting line in 15 of its 16 regular-flavor games in 2014.
Only this twelvemonth, right tackle Bryan Bulaga has already missed three games due to a knee injury, and the veteran struggled with his run blocking when he returned Calendar week v. And his replacement in Weeks 2, three and iv, Don Barclay, was an absolute train wreck in the running game.
Here he is getting manhandled and backed into Lacy's running lane in Calendar week 2:
NFL Game Pass
Again, he's left in the dust as Lacy has nowhere to get on a i-yard loss against Kansas City:
NFL Game Pass
And against San Francisco,Barclay is beat right off the snap as Lacy loses a yard:
NFL Game Pass
Examine the record and you'll see that time and once more, which explains why Pro Football game Focus has given Barclay a run-blocking grade of minus-11.6, which ranks dead-concluding in football game amid 77 qualified offensive tackles.
It also didn't assistance when correct guard T.J. Lang missed well-nigh of Calendar week 5 due to a sprained MCL, and it certainly hasn't helped that—while Lang, Josh Sitton and Corey Linsley take mostly been good inside—left tackleDavid Bakhtiari is ranked 65th by PFF with a run-blocking grade of minus-4.4 (although Bakhtiari has never been much of a run-blocker).
So it shouldn't surprise anybody that when it comes to what Football Outsiders calls adjusted line yards, the Packers rank in the bottom 10 in football when running outside of both tackles, while ranking to a higher place the league median when running up the centre.
Per PFF, Lacy and Starks have just 25 yards on 11 carries when running outside of the right tackle, but the returns oasis't been much better going left. Far too oftentimes, we've seenBakhtiari get killed at the line of scrimmage, leaving Lacy dead in his tracks.
An example from San Francisco:
NFL Game Pass
Point being, he'southward seen far too many looks like this one against St. Louis, which resulted in no gain:
NFL Game Pass
Only information technology does accept to be noted that Starks has been running backside the same line, and he'due south averaged an actress half-thousand per carry on essentially the same number of attempts.
It does aid that a healthier Starks was able to pad his stats against a poor Chargers run defence force, but the tape still reveals that he's been the ameliorate back. Lacy still had a few opportunities like this one against San Francisco:
NFL Game Pass
He had an opening there but stuttered and wound upwards with no gain, which is uncharacteristic of a player of his ilk. And even when he didn't have gaping holes in the past, Lacy was able to make do. He bankrupt 49 tackles on 288 touches last season, which works out to a charge per unit of 17.0 percent. This flavour, he'south breaking tackles on only nine.two percent of his touches.
Meanwhile, Starks turned this into a 10-k gain confronting the Seahawks:
NFL Game Pass
And this into a v-m gain through a tight pigsty in the same game:
NFL Game Laissez passer
And afterwards some improvisation, he turned this into a seven-yard gain:
NFL Game Pass
Finally, this became a pickup of 35 yards:
NFL Game Laissez passer
He's a slow starter
For now, Lacy is stuck platooning with a 6-twelvemonth veteran, only in that location's a lot of time for that to change. In fact, now that he's been given some fourth dimension to heal some mysterious wounds, it might only take 1 vintage performance for the Alabama production to return to stardom.
And Lacy hasn't typically been a fast starter. He failed to blitz for 50 yards in each of his first four games last season and averaged merely iii.0 yards per deport during that stretch, which was the fourth-lowest mark among 31 backs with at least forty attempts.
And in his rookie year, he averaged a tepid four.0 yards per rush in his offset six games before exploding with iii performances featuring 150-plus yards from scrimmage during the concluding 10 weeks.
It hasn't been an ideal start, just Lacy realizes he'due south less than halfway through this marathon.
Brad Gagnon has covered the NFL for Bleacher Report since 2012. Advanced stats courtesy of Pro Football Focus.
Follow @Brad_Gagnon
Source: https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2581372-whats-wrong-with-eddie-lacy
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