I was all for Eddie Lacy, but it’s time the Seahawks to retire Hulk mode
I was happy when the Seahawks signed Eddie Lacy, as I thought he could recapture his best days at Green Bay. Now, I can’t wait for this to be over.
The Eddie Lacy Experiment looked good on paper. The Eddie Lacy Experience, not so much. I truly thought this was a good move by the Seahawks braintrust. I envisioned that Seattle would beat their opponents into submission with this amazing three-headed running attack. The real co-expert here, Lee Vowell, was wisely more cautious in his assessment. Regardless, neither of us expected the train wreck that has been the Seattle running game in 2107. Train wreck can almost be taken literally. All that’s missing from this derailment is the track.
I’ll preface this by acknowledging that the offensive line can take a large part of the blame for this sad state of affairs. As I mentioned earlier on these pages, just look at what Alex Collins is doing in Baltimore. For those allergic to links, he has 570 yards on 113 carries for a 5.0 yard average. As you no doubt remember, Collins was the odd man out in the Seahawks preseason. He wasn’t getting five yards behind our line. No one was – okay, J.D. McKissic was. Eddie Lacy sure wasn’t.
Signing Lacy was a good risk that just didn’t work
Lacy showed signs in his last season with the Packers that he’d regained his Pro Bowl form. Perhaps if he was still in Green Bay, he’d average five yards with each touch as he did in 2016. Behind this Seahawks line, he’s averaged half that. He’s guaranteed almost $2.9 million for this season, but the Seahawks do save $62,500 for every game he’s inactive. They also won’t be paying any of those incentives for yardage gained, clearly. They could have started the bonuses at 400 yards and still make their accountants happy.
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At this point, I’d leave him inactive for the rest of the season and save a little money. He’s eating opportunities, but not yards. Of course if Mike Davis was healthy, it would be much more likely we’d have seen the last of Lacy. Troymaine Pope is on the Texans practice squad. At this point, I’d much rather have him on the active roster than Lacy. At least there’s a chance Pope can run. There’s none with Lacy, not on this team.
I wish Eddie Lacy the best. I’d be thrilled if he turned in a great performance Sunday. I’d be happy to get a mediocre performance at this point. But sadly, we got Bruce Banner instead of the Hulk.