How Important is Eddie Lacy to a Packers Offensive Rejuvenation?

It says something about the expectations for a football team when 10 wins and a wild-card berth is considered a disappointment. But that's the word many would use to describe the 2015 Green Bay Packers.

Most of the Pack's problems last year can be traced to an offense that stunned fans and pundits by free-falling from sixth in the NFL in 2014 to 23rd in 2015.

The loss (and return) of wide receiver Jordy Nelson is widely considered both the cause of Green Bay's offensive woes last season and the solution to their problems this year. But there's another key—a factor that will be just as critical to the team's offensive success in 2016.

The Packers need to get more from Eddie Lacy by seeing less of Eddie Lacy.

As Peter King of Sports Illustrated tweeted, all eyes were on Lacy as the Packers kicked off training camp:

It's that "new look" part that's important with Lacy. The fact that he's a bit harder to see this summer than last. As Rob Demovsky of ESPN.com wrote, Lacy's exact weight wasn't divulged, but he appeared a bit slimmer than during OTAs, when Lacy weighed in around the 240s.

That, in turn, is a good 15-20 pounds lighter than last season, when Lacy was—how shall I put this—paunchy. Rotund, even.

Now, Lacy's a big power back. He weighed 231 pounds at the scouting combine in 2013. And by no stretch of the imagination is this intended as an exercise in fat-shaming. Ninety-nine times out of 100 it's no one's business what someone weighs.

But Lacy is a professional athlete. And last year, weighing in the 250s, Lacy's level of play dropped off a cliff.

Year	Att.	Yards	Avg.	TD	Rec.	Yards	TD
2013	284	1178	4.1	11	35	257	0
2014	246	1139	4.6	9	42	427	4
2015	187	758	4.1	3	20	188	2

His yards per carry dropped a full half-yard. His ranking among tailbacks at Pro Football Focus dropped from third in 2014 to 15th last year. For the first time in his three NFL seasons, Lacy failed to gain 1,000 yards on the ground—largely because his usage dropped considerably as he fell out of favor with head coach Mike McCarthy.

In fact, McCarthy was put off enough by his tailback's weight that, as Michael David Smith of Pro Football Talk reported, he brought it up publicly at the end of the season.

“Eddie’s got a lot of work to do,” McCarthy said. “I’m stating the obvious. His offseason last year was not what it should be and he never recovered from it. He cannot play at the weight he did this year.”

Lacy told Pete Dougherty of USA Today (via the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel) it was a message that needed to be sent: "It needed to be said. It was said, and you can either take it the right way or the wrong way. I think I did a pretty good job of taking it positively and taking care of what I had to."

And the message appeared to hit home. After receiving a public invitation to work out with P90X trainer Tony Horton, Lacy hit the...whatever it is that P90X people hit. (It isn't Shake Weights, is it? Those are ridiculous). And it seems to have worked.

Dougherty believes that's good news for Lacy's career:

"

I still suspect Lacy's optimal playing weight is in the low 230s. His listed weight for his final season at Alabama was 220 but he reportedly played at 230, and at the NFL scouting combine in 2013 he weighed 231. That's still plenty big, but that lighter weight would take some stress off his back and joints, and likely help his speed and quickness at least a little from where he is now.

Lacy might end up losing some weight during training camp, though I can't say I noticed any difference in him from the start to finish of camp last year. Or maybe this is about as light as he's going to get and is just who he's going to be.

"

It's even better news for the Packers.

Yes, the loss of Nelson to an ACL tear before the 2015 season even began was a killer for the Green Bay passing game. The belief was that Randall Cobb would step into the No. 1 role and all the Packers' depth at the position would pick up the slack. Neither happened.

It also didn't help even a little bit that the Green Bay ground game wasn't as effective last year as the season before.

From a raw statistical perspective, things didn't change much. The Packers dropped a bit, from 11th in the NFL (119.8 yards per game) to 12th (115.6 yards per game). But the team also gained fewer yards per carry, and rushing TDs fell off sharply—from 14 two years ago to eight in 2015.

That's one of the problems a slimmer, quicker, better Lacy can solve right away. The Packers struggled in short-yardage, goal-to-go situations last year with Nelson out and Lacy at less than 100 percent (or more, depending on how you look at it). A big part of the upside to having a bruising tailback is that on 1st-and-goal at the 2-yard line, the plan's simple.

There's also the matter of closing out games, another area in which the team had issues in 2015. As it gets later in the season and the weather turns cold (it does that in Wisconsin, you know), having a bowling ball in the backfield can make all the difference in the world.

Two years ago, when the Packers made it to the NFC title game, that meant turning to Lacy late in the season. According to Mike Spofford of the Packers' official website, only once in the first 10 games of the 2014 season did Lacy carry the ball 14 or more times. Over the final eight contests (including the postseason) Lacy accomplished the feat seven times.

Last year, Lacy received 15 or more carries only five times and topped 20 carries only twice.

Being able to establish the run also helps with setting the tempo of the game. Last year, the Packers were 19th in the NFL in time of possession. That was seven slots lower than their ranking the year before. Granted, it was less than 30 seconds difference (30:33 to 30:06), but every second counts in the NFL—especially for a middle-of-the-pack defense like Green Bay—a defense that can't be exposed if it isn't on the field.

Finally, while the NFL is more pass-heavy than ever, and the Packers are best known for their quarterback and wide receivers, there remains something to be said for offensive balance. It's not complicated—as teams bang away successfully on the ground, linebackers and safeties are forced to cheat closer and closer to the line of scrimmage.

And the closer those safeties creep to the line, the better the chance that Cobb or Nelson will get behind them for a big play.

As they are presently constructed, the Green Bay Packers are an offense-first football team. No one is going to dispute that, nor will they dispute that Nelson's return is a big boost to the team's odds of getting back on top of the NFC North.

However, just as important is a rebound on the ground by Lacy. The return of a rushing attack that will make Rodgers, Nelson and the rest of the Packers that much harder to defend—that much more dangerous.

And where Lacy is concerned at least, it appears less really is more.

Gary Davenport is an NFL analyst at Bleacher Report and a member of the Fantasy Sports Writers Association and Pro Football Writers of America. You can follow Gary on Twitter @IDPSharks.