INDIANAPOLIS -- The easiest way -- and perhaps the only way -- for Eddie Lacy to return to the Green Bay Packers is on a short-term deal.

And it sounds like that would be amenable to Lacy's camp.

His agent, Pat Dye Jr., said Wednesday that he will meet with the Packers this week at the NFL scouting combine but wasn't sure whether a deal would get done before free agency starts next week. Until Tuesday, the Packers have exclusive negotiating rights with their own free agents. After that, pending free agents can talk with other teams but can't sign until Thursday at 4 p.m. ET.

Either way, Dye said he expects Lacy to do a short-term deal that would afford him another shot to cash in during free agency if he comes back strong from the ankle injury that limited him to just five games last season.

Lacy said recently that he hopes to be able to work out in full for potential suitors but added that if he couldn't, he expected to be ready for the start of the offseason program in April.

The Packers have already expressed their desire to have Lacy back; coach Mike McCarthy said earlier on Wednesday his interest is “very high” in having a backfield tandem of Lacy and converted receiver Ty Montgomery in 2017.

A one-year deal would give the Lacy the chance to show he can regain his form of 2013 and 2014, when he posted consecutive 1,100-yard seasons to begin his career, and then hit the free-agent market again next year before he turns 28.

Lacy may have been on the way toward showing that last season until he ripped up his left ankle in the Packers' Week 6 loss to the Cowboys. Up to that point in his fourth season, Lacy averaged 5.1 yards per carry, well above his three-year career mark of 4.3 yards per carry.