Eddie Lacy added to Pro Bowl roster: He is who we thought he was
Eddie Lacy is a now a Pro Bowl running back. This along with being named the Rookie of the Year by the Pro Football Writers of America earlier this week, and this with the chance still to become the Associated Press Offensive Rookie of the Year and fan-voted Rookie of the Year when those awards are announced on Feb. 1.
All this, plus the team records Lacy set that you already know about: most carries, rushing yards, and touchdowns by a rookie in a season. Lacy’s first year in the NFL continues to fill itself out in both the way we never thought would happen and exactly how we figured it would go down if he were to be drafted by Green Bay in our pie-in-the-sky mind. The accolades trickling in reinforce what we watched all season, and we’re still processing the happy shock of him being here.
Because we’ve been seeing his rookie season in our best football dreams since before we watched Eddie Lacy hilariously bowl over Notre Dame in the 2013 BCS National Championship game, and definitely after. We imagined the impact but couldn’t possibly foresee how he’d actually have to fit this season, of all seasons. (That fit turned out to be a lot, or something like a one-size-fits-all rain poncho trying to wick away a storm of problems.)
We want the most for Lacy, for himself and of course for the team overall, because we enjoyed him first at Alabama and couldn’t believe when he slipped a little and the Packers picked him up, and because you should vote him for Best Smile in the high school yearbook. (If that’s not an Official NFL Award yet we’re not sure why; it’s an expansion we’d actually agree with.) There were times it just seemed like this wasn’t the best situation for him. There were opportunities laying all over the place but it wasn’t ideal, this first year.
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Oftentimes we cringed for him. Oftentimes it felt like Eddie Lacy was out there taking on endless swarms of defenders, swatting at them and churning his legs until he couldn’t stay upright any longer. One time we could’ve swore we watched him injure his ankle on the last meaningless play of a listless first half against the Atlanta Falcons, but the play has never been confirmed as meaningless, so we don’t know. We watched him limp off into the locker room by himself after that play, though, and felt genuinely bad for him. This was a lot for a rookie in every sense.
Week after week Lacy careened into defenders, plunging into the line of scrimmage when there was little else but that option available to him, leaping and spinning and smashing through microfractures of space, bouncing outside and making yards out of less-than-hopeful-looking situations. When he had space he ran directly, gaining scary momentum with every step. We saw the focus turn on him when Aaron Rodgers was out, and we didn’t see anything different from Lacy.
Whatever was or wasn’t there, Lacy ran through it or tried to run through it. Whomever was or wasn’t there, Lacy kept bumping around until he weakened the defense enough, then jammed his shoulder into the soft spot, a club hammer going through the brittle windshield of a Saturn in the middle of January.
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It seemed perfect beforehand, to add a triceratops to a pack of velociraptors, quick and smart and clinical in their attacks but lacking in ways to simply impale something in front of them should the mood strike. But it seemed too Madden-like, to add Lacy to the Packers, because that’s usually the best and only way to rig a roster exactly to your liking.
Of course, it wasn’t perfect for a long time once we got into the season. We wondered and worried about Lacy in the long-term.
But even if and when everyone returns healthy next season we’ll still worry about him, because as he’s assault-running down the field he doesn’t seem to be concerned about anything but more. That’s him, though. That’s what you get and that’s what we wanted. That style is what is making him a fast fan favorite in Green Bay and across Wisconsin and an award-winner nationally and now Pro Bowler officially.
It was a perfect addition, when the Packers added Eddie Lacy to what they already had on offense. The one sort of player that brings them that much closer to completing their version of a complete offense. In his first season, Lacy had a huge part in lugging a team that probably shouldn’t have been in the postseason to a division title. He ran more than any Packers rookie ever. It was fantastic. And yet we’ll never know what could’ve been if the rest of the offense he was supposed to complete was, well, complete.
But, finally, in terms of Eddie Lacy: that doesn’t and didn’t really matter. He hits people. They hit him. He hits back. He runs in a way that brings on worry but that’s the trade-off. It’s not easy running. That’s why we crossed our fingers for Eddie Lacy in the draft, and that’s why he’s raking in deserved awards. (There should, by our biased measures, be at least one more coming.) He had more on his plate than most anyone would have expected, and still Eddie Lacy basically did what I expected he’d do in my most ideal post-NFL Draft hope-projections. All this doesn’t mean next season can’t be better. For Lacy’s sake we are hoping better means easier, though it’ll never be that. Not when he’s running, at least.