What Do Green Bay Packers Have in Rookie RB Alonzo Harris?

Perhaps the most surprising development from Saturday—the day the Green Bay Packers had to cut their roster down to 53 players—was not that the team waived fan-favorite wide receiver Jared Abbrederis or 2014 fourth-round pick linebacker Carl Bradford. 

Instead, it was that of all three of the players competing for the Packers' third halfback spot—practice-squad holdover Rajion Neal and undrafted rookies John Crockett and Alonzo Harris—it was Harris who made the final cut. 

There were arguments to be made for all three players, though Neal was the favorite in most circles, projected to make the final roster by Fox Sports, Acme Packing Co. and Cheesehead TV. ESPN forecasted that all three would be waived. I, myself, was an advocate for Crockett. 

	Size	Carries	Yds	Avg.	TDs	Rec.	Yds	TDs
Alonzo Harris	6'1", 237 lbs	21	85	4.0	1	1	7	0
Rajion Neal	5'11", 220 lbs	17	69	4.1	0	11	86	1
John Crockett	6'0", 217 lbs	26	97	3.7	1	7	72	1

But therein lies the lesson. General manager Ted Thompson is notoriously hard to pin down, and he pulled out a surprise yet again on Saturday when the team waived both Neal and Crockett and retained Harris. 

What was the reasoning behind that decision? And what exactly do the Packers have in Harris, an undrafted rookie out of Louisiana-Lafayette?

If you study the above table containing all three backs' preseason stats, it's immediately clear that both Neal and Crockett offer more in terms of receiving ability than Harris.

That is backed up by the players' college performances, too. Though Harris was used somewhat frequently as a receiver in his freshman year with the Ragin' Cajuns, catching the ball 15 times for 146 yards and a score, he never caught more than six passes in a season in the following three years, for only a handful of yards each season and no touchdowns. 

Harris had 3,330 rushing yards on 704 attempts and 44 touchdowns at Louisiana-Lafayette.

Season	Carries	Yards	Rush TDs	Receptions	Yards	Rec TDs
2011	163	700	8	15	146	1
2012	170	881	10	4	27	0
2013	199	942	14	4	30	0
2014	172	807	12	6	31	0

By comparison, Crockett had 485 receiving yards through his three years with NDSU, 397 in 2014 alone. Neal had 626, as well as five receiving touchdowns. 

Wouldn't the Packers be interested in a change-of-pace back for their third halfback spot—someone who could perhaps line up in the backfield in place of Eddie Lacy or James Starks and go out for a pass?

The thing is, the Packers already have two players who can be utilized as receivers out of the backfield on package plays: receivers Randall Cobb and rookie Ty Montgomery.

In fact, some draft analysts thought Montgomery could be more effective as a running back than a receiver; there's no question that the Packers will be using him in that role in 2014, especially now that they've re-signed veteran James Jones to be an outside threat, as Ian Rapoport of NFL Network reported Sunday. 

Harris is more similar in style to Lacy and Starks than a departure from them—a hard-nosed inside runner who averaged 4.7 yards per carry over his career. 

What if something were to happen to Lacy and Starks? The Packers run a zone-blocking scheme predicated on having a powerful runner who can push through those lanes opened up by the blocker, typically a fullback. (Thus, why the Packers kept both John Kuhn and Aaron Ripkowski on the 53-man roster). 

If the worst happened and both Lacy and Starks were out for a period of time, the Packers' scheme would need a similarly hard-nosed runner to plug in. 

Aaron Nagler of Cheesehead TV explained the situation well in a series of tweets after the Packers cut Crockett and Neal. 

There's also the issues of Starks' contract, which is set to expire at the end of the 2015 season. The Packers paid Starks $3.25 million over two years in 2014.

Green Bay likely isn't going to want to sign the veteran to another contract extension, given his rising rate, and it's not as though they can claim he doesn't earn it: As the No. 2 in 2014, Starks still had 85 carries for 333 yards and two touchdowns, with an additional 18 receptions for 140 yards.  

If the Packers plan to let Starks walk, and the indication is that they do, they'll need a similar player to slot in to share the load with Lacy over the coming years.

And Harris, at 6'1" and 237 pounds, was the most similarly built of all three of the offseason halfbacks to Starks (6'2", 218 pounds). 

Harris' average yards per carry in college (4.7) also indicates that he can play the way Lacy and Starks do: physically, keeping those legs churning for any additional yards they can get. 

Pass protection is also a critical tiebreaker when it comes to a running back competition, and it's something Harris lists as one of his strengths. 

"I would say if it's not protecting the quarterback, it's yards after contact," Harris said when asked about his strengths back in July on the Railbird Central podcats, via 24/7 Sports. 

Harris also spoke at length this offseason about how much he looks up to Lacy. Now, he'll be emulating Lacy's game not from afar, but as his backup.