GREEN BAY – Eddie Lacy said it. More important, he feels it.
"I feel more explosive, yeah," Lacy said on Sunday.
In reviewing his 2016 preseason debut, in which he carried the ball on the Packers' first four snaps for 24 yards, Lacy called it "a good look."
Where he felt the explosion most was on his third carry, an 11-yarder up the middle. He made a quick initial cut to dodge a Cleveland defender and then broke a tackle in the hole for a sizable gain.
"It's how fast you make the cut, how fast you get north and south out of the cut, and how fast you're able to put your pad level down," Lacy said, describing how he evaluates his runs. "And once you and the defender make contact, who goes back or if it stalemates."
It was only one series and four carries, but the lost weight and improved conditioning appear to be helping Lacy. How he felt on the field carried over to how he looked on film as he studied his snaps.
Lacy doesn't know how much work he'll get the rest of the preseason, but he wasn't complaining about getting the ball four straight times right out of the gate.
"It's just like a glimpse of what can happen or what could possibly happen," he said. "We definitely want to be physical and come out and run the ball this year, and we have to make sure we're ready for it, prepare for it."
How ready is Lacy? He's not there yet.
"I don't think anybody's ever where they want to be," he said. "There's always room for improvement. We have a great coach who pinpoints those things. It's always the pressure, good pressure I guess you could say, of always wanting to do better."
Backup quarterback Brett Hundley feels the same way, except he hasn't had any game action yet to show the strides he's made from his rookie season until now.
Hundley returned to the practice field on Sunday after sitting out more than a week due to an ankle injury, which was no fun.
"Yeah, it (stunk), to say the least," Hundley said. "You just have to figure out ways to keep your mind in the game and keep learning. Not being able to practice is not the greatest."
He put the mental reps to good use, though. Hundley didn't look like he had missed any time in Sunday's workout.
On one play, he got the defense to jump offside with a hard count and then took advantage of the free play to go deep to receiver Jared Abbrederis. He also dropped a nice throw between two defenders on a deep corner route to Justin Perillo along the sideline.
Hundley isn't sure if he'll get the nod from the coaching staff to play on Thursday against Oakland – he said he's taking it "day by day" with his ankle – but he'd certainly like to. All offseason, he thought he was going to have five preseason games to work on his craft, and now he's already down to three with no new game snaps under his belt.
"This is the time I've been waiting for to get back on the field," he said. "It's been a whole year since I've touched a football field and had a chance to play. I'm so excited to get out there and play again."
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