The 2015 campaign was an up and down one for Green Bay running back Eddie Lacy. Sure, he finished with 758 yards, good enough for 20th among running backs in the NFL. But there were games where he was simply ineffective, and games where Mike McCarthy flat-out benched him for James Starks. At one point, Lacy admitted he just wasn’t playing well, telling the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel in December that Starks was “the better player between the two of us right now.” Not exactly a ringing endorsement of your own skills.
Part of Lacy’s problem is his weight, which had likely ballooned out of his normal 230 to 240-pound range. On Sunday, his flash of brilliance on a 62-yard run was combined with an otherwise lethargic finish.
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On Monday night, Green Bay coach Mike McCarthy addressed some of Lacy’s issues head-on, not holding back about the proverbial elephant in the room. No pun intended.
“Eddie Lacy, he’s got a lot of work to do. His offseason last year was not good enough, and he never recovered from it,” McCarthy said during his season-ending news conference two days after his team’s 26-20 overtime loss to the Arizona Cardinals on Saturday in the NFC divisional playoffs. “He cannot play at the weight he was at this year.”
Lacy, for what it’s worth, acknowledges he didn’t work as hard, saying, “I think sometimes when things come easy to you, you kind of ease off a little bit and you get lax.” Yeah, you think?
Lacy has some growing up to do if he wants to continue as the starting running back for a playoff team. Getting called out by your coach is one thing. Getting called out by your coach in a low-key fat-shaming moment where he says you’re not working hard enough? Yeah, that’s not sustainable for a lengthy NFL career.
