A rant in support of Eddie Lacy

I agree with you here Tittle. My only concern is he won't have the blocking needed to reach his full potential.

He will not reach his full potential with the current o-line, but I think he'll have 1000 plus yds this season  - that's if he does not get hurt.

How many truly great running backs needed great O-lines?

Not saying he's great, but if he's exceptional, he'll make his own holes.

True dat, Walter Payton's O-line makes ours look like the Cowboy's line from the '90s.

Exactly. Lacy just needs a little time learning what the OL does well. He'll figure things out in short order. He's going to be fine.

We won't know how good Lacy is going to be until we see him playing with AR in the game. With AR in we will see defenses designed to stop the pass, which leaves them vulnerable to the run, with Harrell & Young in preseason, we didn't see this.  

Lacy needs to do three things this year to make a significant impact on the offense and team as a whole:

1. Make opposing defenses respect the Packers run game, at least somewhat;

2. be successful on short yardage/goal line plays;

3. be successful at blitz pick ups.

If Lacy can do those three things at least marginally well, I believe the Packers offense will be near unstoppable, even with just an average O-line.

While I'd be delighted if Lacy wound up as a combination of Jim Brown/Thurman Thomas (one of the better blocking halfbacks I've seen in my 56+ years), he needs to run effectively. If he can do that, his presence on the field is enough to slow the pass rush whether he can block or not. If you can run play action on every down, you will win most of your games.

Hank Stram had it down. My second favorite coach.

I don't recall hearing much about Alfred Morris in the pre-season last year. Then he blew up. Lacy will get his chance.

Emmitt. 

True Dat!

Lacy was exactly what you guys needed. He's going to be fine. He will finish 4th in rushing in the division, but it will be over 800 yards. Not bad for a rookie.

#1 - Forte

#2 - Peterson

#3 - Bush

I'm assuming you mean Reggie Bush, but you could mean Michael.

Maybe Lacy will finish 5th behind both Bush's

I love Bush

1. Peterson

2. Forte

3. Reggie

4. LACY

5. Cutler.

Jarret?

Yes, Michael.  And who doesn't like Bush?

Did Lacy really need a support rant?

Don't watch the video at the top of the link if you don't like Hoge.  "He might eat himself out of the league before he starts".  Derpstick.

Nicely done analytical piece over at NFL.com about the multiple effects Lacy could have on the Packers' offense.  Along with pretty pictures (example shown below).

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/...itter_writers_brooks

Good stuff cuqui- thanks for posting it

What a blast to have a threat at RB again, Rodgers is probably pretty stoked to have a big RB to lean on

They will still run the package plays, where Rodgers has both a run and a pass called at the LOS

In the past MM has commented that he doesn't like to "run uphill" - ie at the beginning of the game when defenses are set to stop it and all the DL are fresh. We'll see if its any different now

Good piece by Brooks. The question is whether the running game Sunday will more closely resemble the Ram game or the other preseason games where the OL appeared to be wearing roller skates. Having AR in the lineup with the threat of a legitimate passing attack will undoubtedly help.

Comical comment from the article cited above: Joseph Ferrer · FollowFollowing · Top Commenter · Fond du Lac, Wisconsin

Great piece, thanks for posting!

If  Lacy approaches 1000 yds it will be a miraculous year for him. 1300 yds? Come on, who you crapping? Only 6 RBs in the league cracked 1300 yds last year and everyone of them had a good OL in front of them. 

Lacy isn't getting 1300 yards, probably won't get 900 yds because he's only going to be a 2 down back and maybe not even that. if he is healthy for all 16 games, let's say he averages the same 15 carries that Cedric Benson got in GB last season - that's 240 carries for the year. to get over 1000 yds he'd have to average more than 4 yds/carry and that isn't going to be easy with the line that GB is going to be using, especially early in the year with new starters at 4 positions.

Lacy is a rookie. You can bet he's coming off the field for most 3rd down/passing situations. That's also the down that backs pad their stats and get the 10yd runs on 3rd and 20.

With Starks and Kuhn Lacy won't be seeing those prime stat padding downs and he's going to be seeing few holes to run through.

The real hope is he is good enough to force defenses to play one safety up. If he isn't it's going to look a whole hell of a lot like last seasons offense.

Merrill Hoge agrees.

I can't say I see GB having much success on the ground sunday.  But if the "threat" of the run softens up the pass D, I'm fine with those results.

I see Lacy having minimal to modest success on most runs but I do think he will break some runs for much larger gains and that is all the Packers need from him.  I think with his running style there are times he's going to break through to the next level by sheer power and will.  That's exactly why he's a good back for this Oline because he can make things happen on his own. 

Run blocking will be the key to EL's success.

I'm glad we have this rant in support of Eddie Lacy to put both of the Eddie Lacy haters in their place. Way to go out on a limb.

Yeah.  Who would be dumb enough not to like the Lacy pick?

Who hates Eddie?  I just hate the OL.

Some Cock probably.

I didn't like pregnant Eddie

I like Eddie Lazy.

The good news is that Lacy is the type of back that doesn't need much from the OL. The bad news is that there are questions if they can even give him that.