INDIANAPOLIS — As thrilled as Mike McCarthy was with rookie running back Eddie Lacy's debut season, the Green Bay Packers coach is looking for the NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year — and his other running backs — to be able to stay on the field for every down.

"Eddie Lacy obviously had a heck of a year. He was a primary player for us, a playmaker," McCarthy said of the second-round pick from Alabama, who rushed for a franchise rookie record 1,178 yards and 11 touchdowns last season.

"Eddie's focus is on being a three-down player. He has to play all three downs throughout the whole game."

To McCarthy, it doesn't matter if it's Lacy, Johnathan Franklin, DuJuan Harris or unrestricted free agent-to-be James Starks. He believes having all of his backs be able to play on third down would give him greater offensive flexibility by having offensive threats available in the backfield.

Whether that means that the team is ready to proceed without veteran fullback John Kuhn, who's also an unrestricted free agent and whose greatest value is as a third-down pass-protecting back, is unclear.

Lacy, Franklin and Starks each had 100-yard games during last season after the Packers had gone 44 straight regular-season games without a 100-yard rusher. Harris, meanwhile, missed the season with a knee injury but entered training camp as the starter and is still held in high regard by McCarthy.

"I think we can get an even better rotation than we had this year with our running back group," McCarthy said. "I actually thought our running back group rotation-wise has been as good as it's been in my time in Green Bay. But with Eddie, Johnathan and James Starks — hopefully we can sign James back — if all these guys can play three downs, it gives your offense the chance to play faster, keeps guys fresher. Keeps them more in a rhythm, you don't have as much substitution. Really what I look for Eddie to do is become a three-down player."

Lacy, who carried 284 times in essentially 14 games last season, had just 355 rushing attempts in college and never carried more than 20 times in a single game at Alabama. Last season, Lacy carried 20 or more times in 11 games, including 21 carries in the playoff loss to the San Francisco 49ers.

Franklin suffered a season-ending neck injury but McCarthy expects him to be fine for next season.

Jason Wilde  wrote:

I have more hope for Harris contributing than I do for Franklin.

Originally Posted by: texaspackerbacker 

I like what is being said so far this offseason... but so far it's just words.

But sounds like Mike McCarthy is trying to get all of his playmakers on the field more often and has talked about getting Hyde, Datone Jones and Franklin on the field more and in more ways and using Perry in a new way that better suits him and sounds like the defense will be new style/scheme of the 3-4 which has more direct attacking.

Originally Posted by: beast 

Eight running backs appear on PFT’s Free Agent Hot 100: Ben Tate (No. 38); Donald Brown (No. 43); Darren McFadden (No. 67); Knowshon Moreno (No. 70); James Starks (No. 76); LeGarrette Blount (No. 83); Maurice Jones-Drew (No. 85); Toby Gerhart (No. 99).

Based on Saturday, there won’t be a land rush for tailbacks on Tuesday. The contracts likely will come late in the week, at the earliest.