GREEN BAY, Wis. -- Eddie Lacy looked comfortable Tuesday in a suite on the 400 level of Lambeau Field. The Green Bay Packers running back was the gregarious, happy-go-lucky guy he’s always been.
Find him there on a Sunday, and you’re likely to see a much different Eddie Lacy.
But that’s as close as he gets to the action on game days.
What couldn’t be seen behind the table where Lacy sat and talked to ESPN during a promotional appearance for one of his endorsements were the walking boot and the scooter he needs to get around these days -- nearly two months after he was placed on season-ending injured reserve and underwent major surgery on his left ankle.
It’s no wonder that when the topic switched from his Campbell’s Chunky Soup commercials (but not before he re-enacted one of his lines from the ads) to his future with the team that drafted him in the second round nearly four years ago, Lacy’s good-humored way turned more thoughtful.
As much as Lacy hopes to be back with the Packers in 2017, he claimed to know little about his prospects for a return. “Honestly, I have no idea how any of that works,” Lacy said.
The reality is, his injury might actually help make that happen.
There were two schools of thought on Lacy going into the final year of his rookie contract:
He would have a bounce-back year following a disappointing 2015, after which coach Mike McCarthy called him out for being overweight, and price himself out of the Packers’ budget.
Or, if he failed to produce like he did his first two seasons -- he rushed for 1,100 yards in both 2013 and 2014 -- the Packers would let him walk.
Perhaps there’s still a team that will be intrigued by Lacy’s fast start this season. He averaged 5.1 yards per carry in parts of five games before his season ended. He was on pace for another 1,100-plus-yard season. But there will be plenty of clubs scared off by Lacy’s weight issues. After he trimmed down in the offseason, he looked to have gained back some of the weight by the time the regular season started.
The best-case scenario for both the Packers and Lacy would be to strike a short-term, prove-it contract. If they gave James Starks a two-year, $6 million deal last offseason to return as Lacy’s backup, then perhaps that’s the kind of money general manager Ted Thompson would be willing to spend on Lacy this time around.
Either way, Lacy said there’s no doubt he will be ready for the start of next season. In fact, he expects to resume the training he did last year -- which included a P90X regimen -- again this offseason.
“I’ll definitely be ready,” he said. “I don’t know when it is, but definitely I’ll be able to start training in the offseason and running on a scheduled program.”
Lacy credited that training for the fast start he got off to this season.
“I was just more explosive, a little more agile, a little quicker, and guys didn’t want tackle me, I guess you could say,” Lacy said. “Sometimes you just know, like you just feel it. And to be able to have that thought and have that feeling and you can go out and see it happening, it was one of the best feelings ever. I was coming off of a not-so-good year, and to be able to start off the way I did was amazing. For it to end the way it did was not ideal.”
Although Lacy said he still attends team and position meetings and spends as much time at Lambeau Field as possible, watching games from high above -- or on TV -- doesn't cut it. “Literally, this is my first time being injured and not being able to play and missing basically most of the season, so it was a tough pill to swallow,” Lacy said. “The first few Sundays and they traveled and I’m just here and I have to watch on TV, it was real tough. It’s kind of easier to deal with now, because I’ve been through it already, and I’m kind of used to it. But it’s just not the same.”