GREEN BAY, Wis. -- Eddie Lacy couldn't tell you how many NFL rookies have rushed for 1,000 yards in the 10 years before he came into the league.

(It's 12, Eddie).

And the Green Bay Packers' running back certainly would have no idea how many of them were able to replicate it Year 2.

(That would be six).

The fact that Lacy knows little or nothing about NFL history -- even recent history -- should not come as a surprise to anyone who has been paying attention to him since he arrived in Green Bay as a second-round pick in 2013. Lacy has said time and again that he does not watch football or read about football in his free time.

In this case, as he begins his second season on Thursday night at Seattle, that blissful ignorance might serve him well in his quest to back up his record-setting rookie season with an equally -- if not more -- impressive year.

"Whatever comes, whatever stats come with it after that game, then that's what it is," said Lacy, who set a Packers' rookie record with 1,178 yards rushing last season on the way to winning the NFL's offensive rookie of the year award. "Because I don't set numbers or anything like that."

Yet when it comes to running backs, numbers are the barometer.

And as those numbers indicate (see accompanying chart), second-year success for 1,000-yard rookie running backs is far from guaranteed.

Of the six who have repeated the feat, only Chris Johnson (with 2,006 yards in 2009), Adrian Peterson (1,760 in 2008) and Domanick Williams (1,188 in 2004) bettered their rookie rushing totals in Year 2.

"I feel like it can be an even better year for him," said DuJuan Harris, one of Lacy's backups this season. "He got that first year out of the way. He's smarter now. He knows the game and has an idea of how things should go."

Perhaps, but Lacy would seem like a marked man now.

Or is he?

Will teams really commit more personnel to stop the Packers' running back and therefore leave themselves vulnerable to quarterback Aaron Rodgers' ability to pick them apart?

"I wasn't here last year," said first-year running backs coach Sam Gash, "but I know that we have Aaron Rodgers. So pick your poison."

Coach Mike McCarthy took extra care with Lacy this summer. Although he took a regular workload in training camp, where full contact was nearly nonexistent, Lacy played in only the middle two preseason games, sitting out the first and last as a healthy scratch. And in each of his preseason appearances, Lacy played only a single series.

The sample size was small -- just 11 carries -- but Lacy averaged 5.5 yards per rush, nearly a full yard and a half better than his 4.1-yard average as a rookie.

"I think Eddie is ready to go," McCarthy said this week. "I'm looking forward to seeing Eddie perform Thursday night."