The Green Bay Packers are expected to be one of the teams in the mix to win the Super Bowl at the end of the 2015 season, and they have compiled a lot of talent on each side of the football. They are going to have to have quite a bit of competition in the NFC, especially with the Seattle Seahawks. It isn’t going to be easy for them to say the least, but they have quite a few players that are capable of stepping up and leading the way.
Despite the fact that they have quite a few players they need to have step up, who is their biggest X-Factor looking ahead at the 2015 season?
Eddie Lacy is coming off of back-to-back monster seasons with the Packers, and is going to be asked to put up another big year. He is the balance that the offense has to have in order to be successful. Without his ability to pick up consistent yardage on the ground, star quarterback Aaron Rodgers’ job would be much more difficult.
Last season with the Packers, Lacy ended up rushing for 1,139 yards and nine touchdowns on 246 attempts. He also caught 42 passes for 427 yards and four touchdowns. Those numbers show exactly why he is the biggest X-Factor for Green Bay in 2015.
Looking ahead to the 2015 season, Green Bay is going to be marked by every opposing defense. Rodgers is the reigning MVP, and that in and of itself will give defensive secondaries a reason to play a bit harder against him.
At 5-foot-11 and 230 pounds, Lacy combines an impressive amount of size to go with above average speed for a player with his size. He showed his full potential in particular late in the season last year, when he ran all over both the Detroit Lions and Seahawks’ defenses. It isn’t easy for any running back to go up against those defense, and they were defensed that Lacy had struggled against early on in the season.
Throughout his first two NFL seasons, Lacy has averaged 4.4 yards per carry. It isn’t a bad number, and the Packers need him to stay right at that number or take the next step and improve it.
All of that being said, it will be interesting to see what kind of production Lacy is able to put up this season. Green Bay needs him to put up another 1,000-yard season, and Lacy is hoping to put up a lot more than that type of production. If they are going to win the Super Bowl in 2015, they will need their growing star to come through with the best season of his career to this point.
Expect to see him respond to the needs that the Green Bay offense has and come through with a monstrous season. He has lived up to the hype throughout his career to this point so far, and that won’t change this coming season.
