He earned the (affectionate) moniker of Fat Eddie in his Offensive Rookie of the Year season from the fans and teammates, so weight wise I can't imagine he's much, if any, heavier now than when he earned that title. I agree, if it continues I'd say something else is up because he's never gonna be slim, and frankly he hasn't needed to be. He looks very similar to how he was coming out of college - but I don't have those exact figures.
Just as a comparison here are some highlights of Lacy's performance against ND in the Championship game. Obviously he still never had breakaway speed, but it does appear there was a little zip, burst, quickness, whatever you like the term to be, lost this last year.
If the Packers think so, then yah, probably - they're essentially running a $1.3 billion business. IOW, they've forgotten more about NFL player metrics than all of us here combined will ever know...
Not trying to be petty, but that's pretty hard to prove and most likely false. It was a 60 yard run that included contact, a lot of running backs wouldn't have made it ten yards on the play, but I do see your point. He clearly didn't have top end speed but I'm not sure he's ever going to outrun NFL defensive backs no matter what. If you look at his best plays over the years, the usually involved his ability as a running back, not top end speed. There's an irony there, that a 60 yard run could be used against him.
Never said they didn't have a reason, just questioned if weight was the primary factor. It wasn't an issue his first or second year, but suddenly it became one. They started that to by the way, no outside observers started going you know he's fat and that's a problem as far as I'm aware... his production didn't change, his weight didn't really change, only the years left on his contract were noticeably changing. Mind you, I'm not saying that's the only issue. It could be an attitude problem, it could be conditioning, but I will say this. If they are still complaining about his weight, when he clearly isn't overweight by his standards and clearly isn't any heavier than he's ever been with the Packers, there's more to it than that.
I agree that a lot of running backs may not have been able to break tackles and get into the open field as Eddie did but just about any RB who gets 10 + yards behind the defense will score. Eddie had a plethora of long plays his first 2 seasons in the NFL similar to that one above except in his first 2 seasons Eddie would score on those plays. I understand that Eddie's game isn't build on elite top end speed. His game is more about breaking tackles and rumbling. However, I'm not talking about elite top end speed here. Average 4.6 speed would have been able to score on that play once in the open field. Additionally, I just don't buy that the Packers are trying to sabotage Eddie in order to not pay him. Running backs don't command large salaries these days. The NFL is a business and if they think Eddie can provide value to their team they really have no reason to sabotage him. The Packers called Eddie overweight and out of shape because he was by all reputable accounts including Eddie himself. They had to call him out on it because being in shape is part of Eddie's job as a professional athlete..
IMO the ONLY thing that those clips can provide is insight into burst or speed. It would be difficult to judge vision and system knowledge or overall performance given the different levels in competition.
Krazy can correct me if I'm wrong but when he spoke of a different motive for the Packer's slight estrangement from Lacy I took it to mean they were having difficulties with personality types or chemistry between he and the coaching staff, not that they were just trying to find a reason not to pay him more. The idea being that weight is just a smoke screen for other problems they are having with each other.
I think you might be missing the context of this. The context was that if they were still unhappy with his weight then there must be more to it than that. Look at the recent pictures, does that look like a guy that can easily drop a few more pounds? I don't see it, especially not at a position that takes a bruising. May be they want better conditioning, but that isn't weight in and of itself.
Yeah, I'm just saying I don't really know what the issue is but if there's still a problem I don't see how it can just be weight. Even last year, yese he could be in better shape, never said otherwise, but he was still a quality, productive back. They didn't treat him like one though. He shows up in better shape and skinnier and they're still mad at him? Why?
I don't buy that. Lacy has been with the Packers for going on 3 years now with pretty much the same coaching staff and a lack of chemistry issue hasn't been talked about - at least that I'm aware of. Additionally, Tony Horton in the above article was glowing with how easy it is to get along with Lacy and what a nice guy he is. I think the friction with the coaching staff is they were frustrated that a professional athlete wasn't in peak shape and it had an impact on the Packers disappointing season. Obviously the Packers struggles last year weren't all on Lacy as they lost Jordy Nelson to an ACL injury before the season started but Lacy being out of shape certainly didn't help matters..
We also know the game of football has changed since Bettis played.
I think you may be missing the context of this. What good would it do for the Packers to heap praise on Eddie and say that he is right where they want him to be? Why would the Packers say that about any player at this point during the offseason? The Packers comment about Eddie wasn't just about Eddie it was about all the players on the team. The coaches want everybody to continue to improve upon their weaknesses during the offseason. Eddie's only weakness last year was that he was out of shape. I actually took the comments from the Packers as positive because they said they feel like Eddie will be where he needs to be at the start of the season. Again, how is that different than how they're treating any other player on the team? The only difference is Eddie needs to be focused on staying in shape whereas other players may need to focus on their mechanics, technique, footwork etc. What do you think the Packers coaches should say? Do you think they should say that Eddie is where he needs to be and no improvements are needed? That's why you have to take these comments into context of the situation. If this were week 1 of the season then it would be different. Right now it's the offseason which is a time for player improvement not heaping praise..
I think if we are speaking in physical terms it has to be conditioning. Which is totally fair. His balance still seemed good and he still seemed strong as an ox.
We can go back and forth but seriously, there's no point in posting pictures from last season to decide if you still think he's fat. Should be really get much smaller? Not smaller than last year but smaller than he is now, and smaller than he's ever been as a Packer? That's the pertinent question. They should want him to keep up good habits and conditioning, just saying if he's too big for them now and he might just be too big, period.
Yeah, I've never questioned the notion that his conditioning could have improved. I just questioned the idea that he could show up looking like he does now and the Packers were still saying he's overweight. That I do not get and why I would look for other explanations.
Nobody is calling Lacy fat or overweight? Did you actually read the article that has McCarthy's comments? If not this is what he said :"Eddie's like a lot of our team right now," McCarthy said. "We've got a lot of work to do." McCarthy did add he thinks Lacy "will be fine" and will "hit the target that we're all looking for when the lights come on." I don't see anyone calling Lacy fat or overweight in these comments. I see comments calling for player improvement which is what every head coach in the NFL is saying right now..
And like CF said earlier, look at McCarthy's comment. He includes the entire team. That link is a news story with some added commentary.
How can the writer take that quote to be solely about Eddie when McCarthy says "like a lot of our team right now. We've got a lot of work to do." That statement can be made by pretty much all 32 head coaches because no team is in complete game shape four months away from the start of the season.
That writer was using clickbait as you assumed. The following are two pictures the writer tweeted out yesterday. These are both from the same day this year. The first one captioned with does Lacy look any smaller to you? (Obviously a bad angled picture). People in the comments section called him out on it then he posted the 2nd picture.
First, then what are people disagreeing with me about? It was just an exchange back and forth with Audio and I, may be you guys missed some of it
And yes, I read the article, but I was speaking to the hypothetical. My response was in that chain the whole time though, I never claimed Eddie couldn't lose any weight from last season, not once... I did take a bit of an exception though when it was used to obscure his performance. May be benching him was the only way to get him to drop a few pounds, but he was never their second best running back.
