Green Bay Packers beat writer Paul Imig will be analyzing the 25 most important players to the Packers' success in the 2013 season. Check back each day to see the latest player on the list.
Note: This is not a list of the team's 25 best players or a series about past success, but rather which of them means the most to how Green Bay will fare this year. Criteria such as depth at that player's position, general expectations and overall importance of that player having a good season are all highly considered.
23 / Rookie
When Eddie Lacy was drafted by the Packers with the 61st overall pick, he became the highest-selected running back in general manager Ted Thompson's nine years in Green Bay. There is a growing trend in the NFL to not take running backs too early, as injuries happen frequently at that position and undrafted players -- such as DuJuan Harris -- can unexpectedly emerge. But as Lacy fell down the board, the Packers added a player who could be the offensive game-changer that they need in the backfield with Aaron Rodgers.
The biggest difference between Green Bay's top-ranked offense in 2011 and fifth-ranked offense in 2012 was the way opposing teams planned to defend against the Packers. In 2011, Rodgers was so good and Green Bay's running game was so poor (27th in the league) that teams naturally shifted how to stop it. In 2012, the Packers started five different running backs: Harris, Alex Green, James Starks, Cedric Benson and Ryan Grant. Harris showed the most potential of that group, but Green Bay still finished 20th in the NFL in rushing.
That is why Lacy is so important to the Packers this upcoming season. Though he wasn't the first overall running back chosen in this year's draft, Lacy was the top-rated prospect going into it by nearly every media outlet. It was with very good reason that Lacy was thought of in such high regard. He was a winner at Alabama (three BCS National Championships), the Most Valuable Player of the most recent championship game and a first-team All-SEC selection.
Lacy is No. 12 on this list because he's what Green Bay's offense needs. While the possibility for running backs to fail in the NFL is relatively high, Lacy has the talent that could force opposing defenses to respect the Packers' running game for the first time in several years.
Green Bay took some pressure off of Lacy when Thompson also decided to draft Johnathan Franklin in the fourth round. But the expectation for Lacy is simple: Be the Packers' featured running back in 2013.
Placing that high of expectations on rookies can be costly, and it's why Green Bay has backup options ready to go. However, Thompson didn't go against his typical draft-day strategy and grab Lacy in the second round if becoming a backup was an acceptable outcome for the power runner.
If Lacy wins the starting job out of training camp, the Packers' Week 1 opponent (San Francisco 49ers) will have to prepare differently. There would be a threat surrounding Lacy. In a similar way that teams early on last season had to respect Benson a bit, the tape on Lacy shows a dynamic player who needs to be properly accounted for.
An effective Lacy would bring the safeties closer to the line of scrimmage. That's something that rarely happened when teams faced Green Bay last season. It is asking a lot of Lacy, but the expectation on him in 2013 is to make the Packers' offense more than just one-dimensional. That would justify Thompson's decision to draft him at No. 61.
Whether Lacy breaks 1,000 rushing yards as a rookie is less important than the overall threat he can be if he demonstrates the type of dominating skills he showed at Alabama.
The Packers have help in the backfield. Lacy isn't alone. If he struggles or gets injured, Green Bay has better depth at the position than its had in a long time.
Franklin had a very good college career at UCLA. Rodgers even recently mentioned Franklin as a potential three-down running back, which is something that coach Mike McCarthy stated he wants. Franklin isn't going to run over defenders like Lacy can, but he has good speed and was also a good receiver (33 catches, 323 yards) as a senior. Franklin could end up as a nice complement to Lacy or perhaps overtake him permanently on the depth chart at some point.
Harris is a bit difficult to project, almost more so than even a rookie. He was selling used cars midway through last season, but by the end of the year, Harris was the Packers' starting running back in the playoffs. Harris is undersized at 5-foot-9, but he has good speed and a thick frame. He could very well begin the 2013 season as Green Bay's starter. If he does, though, it would be viewed as a letdown that a second-round pick like Lacy couldn't beat him out.
Starks and Green, despite not being in the NFL that long, are the veterans of the group. Green believes he can still be a starter, insisting that he wasn't yet fully recovered last season from a 2011 ACL tear. Starks is equally confident in himself. But, the difference between those two and a player like Lacy should be noticeable. Starks and Green have both had their chance at becoming the face of the Packers' running game and it didn't get the team ranked in the top-half of the league. Lacy could change all that very quickly.
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