Packers coach Mike McCarthy told reporters that his star running back Eddie Lacy needs to drop pounds and get serious if he wants to stick around in Green Bay. Lacy, who is said to run a 4.44-second 40-yard-dash, is listed at 234 pounds. “Eddie Lacy, he’s got a lot of work to do. His off-season last year was not good enough and he never recovered from it,” McCarthy said in a news conference. Lacy just finished his third season. He hasn’t responded to McCarthy’s challenge. The criticism could be seen to lay too much blame on the broad shoulders of Lacy, given that in two playoff games he averaged 6.3 yards per carry, including a career-long 61-yard run in the Packers loss to Arizona.
McCarthy — and his demoted offensive coordinator Tom Clements — clearly called Lacy’s number less this year. A lot less. He finished with just 758 yards on 187 carries. Lacy carried the ball 284 times in his rookie year and 246 last year. Whether Lacy didn’t get the carries because he wasn’t in shape — or whether he didn’t get the yards because he didn’t get the carries becomes a bit of a chicken and egg question for Green Bay. In fact Lacy averaged 4.1 yards per carry this season, the exact same average he had in his big rookie season. One difference was Lacy scored 11 touchdowns in 2013 and only three this year.
