Eddie Lacy, a consensus first-round pick in drafts this year, had four rushes for three yards while available in Week 6.
The Green Bay Packers running back had a fumble, but that turnover came early in the fourth quarter. James Starks had taken over as the primary back long before that point, though he only totaled 10 carries. Lacy has only four more carries than Starks this season, but Starks has 26 more rushing yards and the same number of touchdowns. Starks has fewer receiving yards than Lacy, but two more receptions and a touchdown that eludes Lacy.
In short, the Packers backfield isn't working as expected.
Lacy was supposed to be the bell-cow back for the Packers. The player who would benefit from all of the attention that opposing defenses paid to Aaron Rodgers and the passing game. The player who would run to space behind an effective offensive line. The player who would be consistently productive as part of one of the most high-powered offenses in the NFL.
The 25-year old was supposed to be one of the few feature backs in the NFL. Now that he appears set to share the load with Starks for the season, his value should plummet. Lacy isn't an explosive player. He is the type of back who needs touches to wewar odwn the defense and consistently grind out yards instead for long gains every so often.
Unless something drastically changes, Lacy isn't going to be the top-12 scorer he was expected to be. The bigger question at this point is what can Starks be?
Is Starks someone who can consistently create big plays and sustain the higher end of his week-by-week production, or is he a sell-high candidate at this point of the season? To really gauge Starks' value, you have to understand the technical aspects of his play. He is clearly explosive enough and powerful enough to take advantage of space when he finds it, but finding it is another exercise altogether.
On Starks' 65-yard touchdown run against the Chargers this week, his technical weaknesses could be seen.
The running back is given the ball working towards left tackle. The play is well defended by the Chargers front, but Starks doesn't help his line with his actions before the line of scrimmage. He shows know pateince or awareness. He picks a direction and runs in it, which causes him to bounce into one of his blockers. This ultimately helps Starks because the Chargers had abandoned backside contain, but his inability to show patience, set up his block or attack space is still a concerning aspect of the play.
Starks gained 65 yards and scored a touchdown on this play, but that result is the exception when it comes to this type of play.
More often than not, a back who runs into one of his blockers is going to be stopped for no gain or a loss. Starks has had issues with negative plays this season. Offsetting his big plays are 14 runs for negative yards or no gain. Those 14 runs -15 yards. Starks isn't consistently being hit behind the line of scrimmage as much as he is making bad decisions at the line of scrimmage.
Starks is a big body runner with heavy feet. As such, he doesn't possess the ability to make subtle movements between the tackles. His options are generally run hard in the direction he was already going or bounce to the outside. He isn't able to set up blocks and work away from blown blocks as easily as the better backs in the NFL. In the above play, he was never likely to gain many yards, but was too fast to the line of scrimmage to cut back infield.
Cutting back infield would have given him an opportunity to gain some yards, even if not many, whereas breaking towards the sideline worsened his loss on the play.
With the Packers offensive line being a better group of pass protectors than run blockers, these elements of the running back position become more important. Starks needs to show better patience and carry out physical actions that he's not built to carry out in order to be a consistently productive running back.
On this play, his offensive line doesn't blow the defense off the line of scrimmage, but they do give him a clear path between the tackles to run downfield. With nimble feet or some explosiveness through the hole, Starks may have even had an opportunity to break into space on the second level. Instead of doing that, he turned towards the sideline and ran backwards for a -2 yard loss.
When you freeze the play, his decision becomes even more egregious.
Starks had a front-side running lane to run directly too. He also had an opportunity to set up a wider cutback lane. His initial cutback lane was filled by multiple Chiefs defenders, while the sideine wasn't an option at any point. This play is a prime example of a running back leaving yards on the field. Even though his blocking wasn't dominant, he was the primary reason the play didn't gain any yards.
Because he likely came at such a low value, Starks is already offering quality returns for your investment.
However, getting out at this point may be the best strategy if you can get good value in return. Starks isn't the kind of back you should cut, but he's also not going to be guaranteed to be in your starting lineup. He is the ideal trade chip because he should give a good return without detracting too much from your overall roster.
Fantasy value is largely based on opportunity, situation and talent. Starks has some positives for all three, but there are also significant issues with each of those criteria. He's unlikely to follow in the footsteps of Devonta Freeman and more likely to continue on the course that most of his career has followed to this point.
Starks is 29 years old and has played six seasons in the NFL. For his career he averages 4.4 yards per carry, but has only carried the ball 470 total times while starting six games. He is a career backup who has spotty production in a limited role.
