GREEN BAY, Wis. – His wedding is on the horizon, and he’s in a contract year. But neither is the reason Green Bay Packers All-Pro left guard Josh Sitton undertook an Eddie Lacy-style approach – minus the P90X – to the offseason.
To hear his coach tell it, and with apologies to Allen Iverson, Sitton’s decision to drop 20 pounds this offseason was all about practice.
“Usually I don’t share what a player says to me, but this is really impressive: When he came back at that weight, his response to me was, ‘I need to practice more,’” Packers offensive line coach James Campen said. “That tells you about a guy.
“He didn’t say, ‘I want to play five years longer.’ He said, ‘I want to practice more, and this is going to allow me to practice more.’”
Recurring back problems and a painful toe injury in 2014 have forced Sitton to follow a reduced practice plan for several years. Although he hasn’t missed a game since 2011 and played more snaps last season than any Packers' offensive player, he has had plenty of weeks where he has done it without much – if any – work on the field during the week.
Sitton, who turns 30 next month, said he has weighed in regularly at between 305 and 310 pounds since he came back to Green Bay for the offseason program last month. At his heaviest, he said he was between 325 and 330 at season’s end.
“When you’re 22, 23, 24, you can carry this heavy weight all year, and it’s no big deal,” Sitton said. “But as you start getting older, you’ve got to do certain things. This is four, five months that my body’s not carrying around all of that weight, so it’s just better on my joints and everything like that.
“It’s easier to play at 325, 330 when you’re 22, 23 years old. It’s a little bit harder when you’re coming on 30. It kind of just helps with everything. I usually lose a few pounds during the offseason every year. This year, I just did a little bit more.”
The Packers’ roster lists Sitton at 318 pounds, the same weight it did last year. He said he plans to gradually add a few pounds before the start of the regular season but will do it “the right way by eating better.”
“I’ve always played at a certain weight, and I’m not going to alter that too much,” he said. “I’ll probably play at five to eight pounds lighter this year, maybe, but it’s not going to be anything drastic.”
Sitton said he discussed his weight loss with Lacy, who’s in the process of his own body transformation attempt, even though their methods were far different.
“I didn’t do any P90X,” Sitton said. “I’m not all about that. But yeah, we talked a little bit, but not a whole lot. He looks good, though.”
That Sitton lined up in his usual left guard position during OTA practice on Tuesday was the first sign that he might be on the practice field more this season.
“He looks pretty svelte doesn’t he?” quarterback Aaron Rodgers said after Tuesday’s practice. “He looks great. I’m happy for him. He’s in a contract year. He came back looking really good. He’s also getting married, so he probably wanted to look good in those wedding pictures, too.”