Alex Green is Packers No. 1 Back For Now

Alex Green sits atop the Green Bay Packers depth chart at running back at the moment. That may come as a surprise considering the team drafted two running backs, but it probably shouldn’t.

Green is healthy for the first time in over a year and says he can finally make cuts without experiencing pain.

“That was the frustrating part,” Green said. “I’d go back, see a play and say, ‘I know I can make that cut’ or ‘I know I can break that tackle. I know I can explode.’ But physically, not being able to do it was frustrating. I knew that wasn’t the kind of player I am. That’s finally behind me. That’s finally behind me.”

“Being able to cut without going, ‘Ahhh!’ and knowing in my head that it hurts terribly,” Green said. “So just being able to cut and not feel any pain and not think about it.”

That’s great, but much like the competition going on at most other positions, guys are going to have to earn starting jobs this season. The Packers aren’t handing anything to Eddie Lacy, even though they picked him in the second round.

Lacy and fourth-round pick Johnathan Franklin certainly have a ways to go to get as comfortable with the playbook as Green and the rest of the holdovers, too.

We should also point out that the Packers haven’t had a practice with pads on yet, either. Proving yourself in minicamp and OTAs is entirely different than doing so in training camp.

So, yeah, Green will open camp as the Packers No. 1 back, but will he be able to keep that role? There are four other guys who will have something to say about it when the pads go on.

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