If taken literally, it seemed a poor choice of words by new Green Bay Packers running backs coach Ben Sirmans when he said he could tell his star pupil, Eddie Lacy, is "very hungry" this offseason.

That's the same Eddie Lacy who Green Bay head coach Mike McCarthy said had to shed weight before the 2016 season and subsequent reports indicated needed to lose 30 pounds to please the Packers.

New #Packers RB coach Ben Sirmans said he's already spoken with Eddie Lacy. Initial impressions? "You can tell he's very hungry this year." — Ryan Wood (@ByRyanWood) February 18, 2016

Sirmans was introduced to the media earlier this week, and he made it clear he wasn't talking about the former Alabama standout's appetite. Instead, he referring to Lacy's desire to return to the form that he showed during his first two NFL seasons.

"I have talked to Eddie," Sirmans said, "and, really, our conversation has pretty much just been about him getting to know me and me getting to know him. Really, it hasn't gotten to very much football stuff yet. I think, for us, it's just trying to learn who each other is. I think that's the most important thing with him. One thing I do know is that he's working his tail off. It's important to him to play at a great level. So I do know he's working his tail off."

After the Packers selected Lacy out of Alabama in the second round of the 2013 NFL Draft, Lacy earned the NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year Award, running for 1,178 yards and 11 touchdowns on 284 carries and catching 35 passes for 257 yards. In 2014, Lacy had 1,139 yards and nine touchdowns on 246 carries and 42 receptions for 427 yards and four touchdowns. In 2015, Lacy gained 758 yards and scored three touchdowns on 187 carries and caught 20 passes for 188 yards and two touchdowns.

On the day after Green Bay lost to the Arizona Cardinals 26-20 in overtime in the NFL playoffs, McCarthy said at his end-of-season press conference: "Eddie Lacy, he's got a lot of work to do. I think I'm stating the obvious. His offseason last year was not good enough, and he never recovered from it. I had a chance to talk to Eddie today, and that was pretty much the majority of our whole conversation. He has to get it done because he cannot play at the weight that he played at this year."

Sirmans said he wanted to take a good look at the Lacy's NFL body of work to make certain that his weight was the issue in 2015.

"Obviously, he'd be a little bit quicker and, in this league, quickness and those things, they do matter," Sirmans said about the Packers' desire to have Lacy lose weight. "I haven't really had a chance to really focus and see the difference between Eddie when he was lighter and to where he's at right now and to study those things. Those are some of the things that I want to do, so that when he comes back and we sit down and start talking and develop a plan to help him to continue to get better, I have a great idea of what he needs to do from that standpoint.

"My role, from that standpoint, it's very important because everything leads to performance. So the better shape he's in, obviously, the better he's going to perform. So my role is to make sure not only that I encourage him, to make sure that he's doing the right thing, making sure he also realizes the benefits of him being at his top (conditioning), which he does. He does understand that."

McCarthy said he has confidence that Lacy is up to his challenge.

"I've talked to Eddie a number of times," McCarthy said this week. "We talked on his exit interview. I think he's definitely a young player that's making that transition into that veteran realm. You're a successful player in the National Football League when you hit your fourth year. You need to have it all figured out. I'm confident that Eddie will. Really, Eddie just can't play at the weight he played at last year. Some of these comments and things are totally blown out of proportion. The communication that we've had with Eddie since the end of the season, it sounds like he's already started that process. He's an excellent young player. He's going into his fourth year, and we look for him to be an impactful player for us next year."

Lacy's performance in 2015 seemed to play a part in his change of coaches. McCarthy dismissed running backs coach Sam Gash at the end of the season.

"Like everything, you have different components of your football operations -- your strength, conditioning, training, nutrition, all those things," McCarthy said. "And everybody's accountable to their area, and the position coach is ultimately accountable for the performance and the training of their players. But Eddie Lacy, conditioning and so forth, is something I have great confidence will improve, or is improving as we speak, and he'll learn from his performance last season."

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Sirmans joined the Packers after four seasons as the running backs coach for the St. Louis Rams. In Sirmans' first season with the Rams, Steven Jackson recorded his eighth consecutive 1,000-yard season. Then came three successful rookie running backs for Sirmans. Former Bibb County High School star Zac Stacy nearly made it to 1,000 rushing yards in 2013 with 973 in 14 games, former Auburn standout Tre Mason made the NFL All-Rookie team in 2014 and Todd Gurley was the NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year in 2015.

Sirmans has used Jackson as his standard when coaching NFL running backs, and that fits particularly well with Lacy because of their similar sizes and running styles.

"When I got those younger guys, I pretty much said, 'Hey, here's how those veteran guys have done it. If you have plans and expectations to stay in this league for a long time, here's what you need to do. Here's how you need to train yourself,'" Sirmans said. "They all want to stick around in this league for a long time."

Lacy is entering the final season of his rookie contract.

"I think the things that he can do, for a guy that's a big guy with incredible feet, I think he's a guy who definitely has some staying power in this league for sure," Sirmans said. "... I know that he's a very explosive player. Got a ton of talent. Strong. Got great feet. Just to have a chance to be able to coach a guy with those type of attributes, I'm really excited about."