“No Way. Absolutely No Way.”
This is the response I’d expect every Green Bay Packers fan to make when I tell them there is a reasonable chance that Eddie Lacy isn’t a Green Bay Packer in two years.
Obviously they’ll use more expletives involved with their response.
The life of an NFL running back is violent and many don’t have prolonged careers without injuries. Running backs are a hot commodity in the NFL. The Supply vs. Demand is incredibly competitive, which means the Packers struck gold when they drafted Lacy right?
Wrong.
Lacy is a great back, phenomenal even, but the third year back has clearly struggled with injuries over his first two years in the NFL. To make it worse, they’re head injuries. When looking at the running back position as a whole, most people would say that knee and foot injuries are the bane of running backs. But for Lacy, it’s his brain.
In his first two years, Lacy has accumulated 2,317 rushing yards on 530 attempts with a total of 20 rushing touchdowns. Another statistic to add to those numbers; two concussions. Which begs the question, is Ted Thompson going to resign Lacy in 2017?
Well, lets fast forward two years. It’s 2017 and the Packers have won two consecutive Super Bowls. Alright we’ll not get ahead of ourselves here. It’s the offseason and free agent signings are coming up. You have both Josh Sitton and T. J. Lang about to hit free agency and they’re not going to be cheap to keep. With a line bolstered by Sitton and Lang, you can afford to let Lacy walk and take your luck on a player in the draft.
On top of paying for Lang and Sitton, the Packers are going to have to fork out a lot of money for a caliber of running back that Lacy is. With concussion worries, the Packers could pass on him. It wouldn’t be the first time a star running back has left after his rookie contract. DeMarco Murray recently signed with the Philadelphia Eagles in the offseason after the Dallas Cowboys declined to resign the 2015 NFL Offensive Player of the Year.
Rumors had begun to surface on Twitter a few weeks before the NFL Draft this year that the Packers were ready to take Melvin Gordon with their first round pick if he fell to them.
For Lacy, contract talks and injury setbacks are going to ultimately keep him from playing with the Packers past 2016. But let’s not forget the Packers value their players. Despite both having one year without injuries, the Packers made sure to keep Randall Cobb and Bryan Bulaga around. So the odds Lacy stays aren’t as low as you would think.
It would be a sad sight to see Lacy leave titletown. The former Alabama standout has been a force to be reckoned with since day one. But the possibilities are real that he could be wearing a different jersey in 2017.
Let’s hope it’s not a Minnesota Vikings jersey.
Kyle Engman is the Lead Green Bay Packers Writer for RSEN. You can follow him on Twitter for more Packers News at @KyleEngmanNFL.
Photo: FoxSports.com