Starks.
It's gotta be Starks.
Why pass on Lynch? Too expensive? It would have been exciting to see Lynch in that offense but not *that exciting? Or did they have faith in a guy they wanted to see after Week 7? My guess is it's the latter.
They also cut bait on Quinn Porter; Shanny & the Skins picked him up.
I'm just guessing here, but watch the Pack use the same gradual introduction of Starks that they did with Grant and just try to get by in the meantime. But there will come a day when they want that running game and Starks will be there.
"Thompson should be getting help in the form of sixth-round draft choice James Starks after the Miami Dolphins game Oct. 17. The Packers were very high on Starks coming out of the draft but were unable to get him on the field much because he suffered a hamstring pull during off-season workouts and then aggravated it in a conditioning test at the start of training camp.
He spent all of camp on the physically unable to perform list, where he remains. Under NFL rules, he is eligible to return to practice after the sixth game. At that time, the Packers will have three weeks to decide whether to put him on the 53-man roster, place him on injured reserve or release him.
Starks hasn't played football since the 2008 season, missing his senior season at the University of Buffalo because of a shoulder injury.
Nance is considered a tough runner inside. At his pro day in March, he ran the 40-yard dash in 4.63 seconds, registered a 33-inch vertical jump, 9 feet 6 inches in the broad jump and 19 reps in the bench press. He was not drafted, and the Falcons signed him as free agent.
Nance was the leading rusher for two straight years at Arizona State and as a senior rushed for 795 yards and six touchdowns, earning honorable mention All-Pac-10 honors.
At Trinity High School, he was one of only two players in Texas 5A football history (the other was current Cincinnati Bengals running back Cedric Benson) to rush for more than 3,000 yards in a season. He had 3,173 yards and 41 touchdowns."
http://www.jsonline.com/sports/packers/102923874.html
"Injuries dogged Starks throughout his UB career. He sat out his senior season with a shoulder problem that required surgery. The Packers got him in the sixth round of last April's draft, but he would have gone much earlier if not for questions about his durability.
Even though they haven't seen much of Starks' talent since he arrived in Green Bay, the Packers remain intrigued by his potential.
"He's a big, athletic running back, and I think he has the ability to be a three-down player,'' Packers head coach Mike McCarthy told the Buffalo media via conference call this week. "I haven't seen him in pads yet, so there's really a lot of information we haven't been able to gain on him. Hopefully he can get past this [injury] and get healthy so when we get there after Week Six we can evaluate him.''"
http://blogs.buffalonews.com/billboard/201...%28BillBoard%29