"He's a big back and really hasn't missed any time," Gutekunst said. We knew it.' "īrian Gutekunst, the Packers' first-year director of college scouting, immediately was asked about Lacy's durability issues and expressed not a trace of anxiety. "And the GM and the coach are, like, 'This freaking guy. "But then his toe's not right and he's got this hamstring and he's over there on the bicycle the entire training camp. "I can hear people saying, 'Oh my God, they got this guy at 35. Shortly after Thompson halted Lacy's descent, one fan sent an email to the Journal Sentinel that read simply, "It's like Christmas."Įarlier in the month, a less optimistic and more hardened personnel man envisioned what the scene might be like come August for Lacy's new team. He also came up with a pulled hamstring that eliminated him from Alabama pro day March 13.įinally, on April 11, Lacy ran a 40-yard dash (4.6 seconds) and performed drills, but became fatigued quickly and left some scouts looking for much more. Last season, Lacy had an elbow injury and then a left hand injury that one personnel man said required the insertion of seven screws late in the year.Īt the combine in February, Lacy couldn't work out because of pectoral and knee injuries. After redshirting in 2009, he made it through the 2010 season intact before being affected by a turf toe injury down the stretch in 2011 and undergoing surgery in January 2012. Injuries limited Lacy to seven games as a high-school senior in 2008. Lacy had just 355 carries and 35 receptions for the Crimson Tide, starting only in 2012 after the departures of Mark Ingram and Trent Richardson.īut Lacy's injury history probably was the root cause why the entire league turned him down not once but twice in the draft. Seattle then jumped on perhaps the second-most talented back, Texas A&M's Christine Michael, one slot after Lacy. Lacy, 5 feet 11 inches and 229 pounds, incredibly was the fourth running back selected after North Carolina's Giovani Bernard, Michigan State's Le'Veon Bell and Wisconsin's Montee Ball. "I think it could have been one of the reasons he wasn't drafted earlier by other teams." "We feel pretty good about it," Thompson said of Lacy's almost endless history of injury. They got a player that was the unanimous choice of 16 NFL personnel people in a Journal Sentinel poll as the best back in the draft.Īt the same time, the Packers vi olated their deadly serious organizational initiative to curb injuries in 2013 after being decimated twice in the past three years. When nobody would take them off the hook, it was almost as if the Packers threw up their hands and turned in the Lacy card. If the Packers were trying to run away from Lacy, the talented but brittle fourth-year junior, they couldn't do it. 61 and an additional sixth-round selection. Not only didn't Thompson aggressively pursue Lacy, he almost did the unthinkable by trading away the No. One way or another, running back Eddie Lacy of Alabama became the newest Packer on Friday night with the 61st pick in the second round of the National Football League draft.Īs Lacy plummeted deeper and deeper, you could almost hear the cries from the Green Bay faithful across the globe beseeching general Ted Thompson to trade up and nab him. NFL footage © NFL Productions LLC.Green Bay - It will rank as one of the most hesitant draft choices that the Green Bay Packers have ever made. All other NFL-related trademarks are trademarks of the National Football League. NFL and the NFL shield design are registered trademarks of the National Football League.The team names, logos and uniform designs are registered trademarks of the teams indicated.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |