"Ryan Grant joined the Green Bay Packers after training camp ended in 2007, and thanks to a contract dispute and hamstring injury, he didn't have much of a training camp last year, either. That's why the Packers' starting halfback is enjoying himself this year.

Well, enjoying might not be the right word.

"Do I necessarily think the pounding is good? I don't know," Grant said as the Packers prepared for Saturday night's second game of the exhibition season, against the Buffalo Bills at Lambeau Field. "But as physical as we've been in practice, I think it's helped me. I think it helped last Saturday."

Last Saturday, Grant carried the ball six times for 28 yards, including a 2-yard touchdown run, while playing the first two series of the Packers' 17-0 victory over the Cleveland Browns.

While he plans on getting 20 to 25 carries per game once the regular season starts Sept. 13 against the Chicago Bears, the six-carry effort certainly was better than last preseason, when he missed the first week of camp while contract talks lagged, then suffered a hamstring injury that sidelined him almost immediately.

Grant didn't have a carry in preseason play and was on the field in a game for just one snap - quarterback Aaron Rodgers' 68-yard touchdown pass to Greg Jennings on the opening play of the exhibition finale against Tennessee.

As a result, Grant wasn't himself for much of last season. While he started strong (12 carries for 92 yards, including a season-long 57-yard run) in the season-opening victory over Minnesota, he wasn't as explosive as he was the year before, when he took the NFL by storm by rushing for 956 yards in 10 games, then added a 201-yard effort against Seattle in the playoffs.

Instead, the hamstring bothered him all season, and while he finished with 1,203 yards (fifth most in the league), his yards-per-carry average fell from 5.1 yards per run to 3.9.

So far in camp, he appears to have regained that burst. Against the Browns, he looked quick on his longest run of the night (14 yards) and showed speed getting to the left pylon on his scoring run.

"I do feel more explosive. But more than that, just healthy. I feel healthy," Grant said. "I can burst, I don't have to think about anything. When you're healthy, it's different. I thought about (the hamstring) a lot last year. A lot of times, I couldn't hit it. Mentally, I'd see it, but I couldn't hit it. I didn't have that burst. You don't know, you're just trying to gauge it. And the way I run, there's no time for gauging.

"It was always on my mind to a degree - except for the last few games maybe - because it's a comfort level. The mental aspect is just as important as the physical."

Physically, he looks good. While Grant is still listed at 225 pounds, his physique appears to be more chiseled than last year, which according to running backs coach Edgar Bennett is a by-product of a successful offseason that saw Grant not only p