Allen Lazard will still have to spend the next few games on the sidelines for the Green Bay Packers, but the third-year wide receiver remains optimistic his return from injury will be coming in the “near future.”
Lazard co-hosted Tuesday’s Clubhouse Live for USA TODAY NETWORK and provided an update on his injury for the first time since he underwent core-muscle surgery last week. He had been injured during his career performance in Week 3 against the New Orleans Saints and was placed on injured reserve several days later, ensuring he would be out until at least Week 8.
“I’m feeling great,” Lazard said. “Can’t wait to come back. It should be a short recovery time. And hopefully, I’ll be back out on the field with my teammates here again soon.”
Despite missing Week 4’s win, Lazard still leads the Packers in receiving yards (254) and is their only non-running back with at least 100 yards after completion. The sooner they can get him back in the lineup, the more dangerous their NFL-leading scoring offense will become.
The Packers could also welcome back two other wideouts before Lazard is ready with Davante Adams expected to be ready coming out of the bye week and Equanimeous St. Brown now eligible to be designated for return from IR. The extent of St. Brown’s injury has not be publicly disclosed, so it remains unclear if he will be ready, but there seem to be few hangups about Adams’ availability for Week 6 against the Tampa Bay Buccanneers.
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Lazard Details How Injury Happened
The news about Lazard’s injury was more surprising than others this season for the simple reason that he finished out Week 3’s without any noticable signs of trouble. And there had been plenty of oppportunity to see him, too, with him catching six of eight targets for 146 yards and a touchdown. Now, Lazard has shed some light on why fans might have missed it.
“Yeah, so obviously it wasn’t too big,” Lazard said of being able to play through the injury. “It happened in the second half when I was running. I just felt kind of a tightness in my lower body and just kind of played through it. Once the game was over and everything, I kind of realized when the adrenaline wore off there was something wrong. So I went to the doctor, and they examined it and realized they needed to go back in there and fix some things up.”
Packers Making Everyone Dangerous in 2020
A different player has starred for the Packers offense in each of their four wins with quarterback Aaron Rodgers playing an instrumental role in all of them. The wild thing is there are still a few others — Jamaal Williams, Marquez Valdes Scantling — who feel completely capable of busting off for multi-touchdown performances in the comings weeks.
Valdes-Scantling hasn’t stepped directly into the spotlight just yet, but his speed and status as a deep-ball threat have allowed him to become the only receiver other than Lazard with more than 200 yards this season. Once Adams returns to the field and takes some of the defensive attention away from him, his time could finally come to set new career-highs.
Darrius Shepherd and Malik Taylor also caught their first passes of the season against Atlanta and could become more involved in the coming weeks, especially with the bye giving the Packers an opportunity to pause and readjust to some of the injury shakeups they’ve experienced.
“We push each other hard every single day, always commenting on each other’s routes, critiquing each other,” Lazard said of the Packers’ receiver room. “Putting ourselves in those situations and what we would have done differently and whatnot. So because we have that great relationship, I think it was easy for those guys to go out there and be able to have the success that they had (against the Falcons). They prepared well, practiced hard and were clearly ready to step up in the moment.”
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Packers WR Allen Lazard Sets Expectations for Recovery Time