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A fine line between big and too big for Packers running back Eddie Lacy

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Ad Pro Test Clip 197 - March 2017 (1:16)

Ad Pro Test Clip 197 - March 2017 (1:16)

GREEN BAY, Wis. -- If you don’t believe Eddie Lacy hasn’t been called into the principal’s office to discuss his weight, he’s not even sure where the Lambeau Field equivalent of that is located.

When responding to questions about his weight on Thursday, the Green Bay Packers running back said he has never once been summoned to see “the guy upstairs on the third floor.”

And then Lacy stopped and asked: “The third floor is it?”

Yes, Eddie, that’s where coach Mike McCarthy and general manager Ted Thompson have their offices.

So either Thompson and McCarthy don’t think Lacy is overweight or if he is, they don’t have a problem with it.

Lacy admitted Thursday that he’ll never look like Adrian Peterson, but he’s not necessarily Jerome Bettis, either.

For running backs built like Lacy, who is listed at 5-foot-11 and 234 pounds, there’s a fine line between big and too big. And Lacy would appear to be at the very least straddling it.

“There is, but really the individual has to figure that out,” Packers running backs coach Sam Gash said. “Obviously, it’s easy to see if you’re not productive.”

Gash, a former NFL fullback from Penn State, said he played in college with Gary Brown, who went on to an eight-year career with the Oilers, Chargers and Giants. He said Brown was 212 pounds when he came into the league and 280 when he left.

“So yeah, you can be too big,” Gash said. “That’s not a problem here at all.”

Like others have done, Gash, who works with Lacy every day, said that wasn’t the reason Lacy carried only four times for 3 yards against the Chargers in his most recent game. Gash said as a coaching staff, it was “just kind of the feel” that James Starks would have a big game. Starks started and rushed for 112 yards.

That doesn’t mean the Packers won’t go back to Lacy, who has back-to-back 1,100-yard seasons on his NFL resume.

“He’s been productive every year he’s been there,” Gash said, “and I don’t see anything else happening but that.”