With reports that the Patriots are holding out hope that Dion Lewis will be able to return in a limited fashion this Sunday against Seattle, I thought I would examine his role in the offense last season and the difference in usage between Lewis and his replacement, James White. The Patriots have until next Thursday to take Lewis off the Physically Unable to Perform (PUP) list in order for him to be able to play at all this season.
In Lewis’s absence, James White has done a more than admirable job filling in as the receiving back. Last season, in nine games without Lewis, White had 40 catches for 410 yards, good for 10.3 yards per catch, and added four touchdowns through the air. While Lewis had nine more catches in two fewer games, White’s average yards per catch was just a half yard behind Lewis’s 10.8 mark. He even had Pro Football Focus’s third-best receiving grade by running backs last season, trailing only former Patriot Danny Woodhead and the Lions Theo Riddick.
While White’s numbers in the running game were far worse than Lewis’s (22 carries for just 56 yards last season, and averaged a paltry 2.5 yard per carry following Lewis’s injury), he was not really asked to fill the void Lewis’s injury left in the running game (as evident by the fact he averaged only 2.4 carries a game). White is a back who thrives in one area, the passing game, but is unable to shoulder the type of load Lewis was able to take on because Lewis is simply the more well-rounded back with a higher talent level. White is tremendous at what he is asked to do, and remains near the top of PFF’s receiving grades for running backs (he ranks 3rd again this season), but Lewis still has a far greater influence on the offense as a whole.
In just seven games last season, Lewis had 49 carries for 234 yards, good for 4.8 yards per carry, nearly doubling White’s average. His 4.8 average yards per carry would have put him tied with Todd Gurley for 6th among all runnings backs last season, ahead of backs like David Johnson, Adrian Peterson, Lesean McCoy, and Lamar Miller. Granted, his 49 carries are too small a sample size to be able to truly measure his production compared with someone like Peterson, who led the NFL with 327 carries, but his numbers show the elite production he was able to put forth before tearing his ACL in Week 9.
While he was able to put up stellar numbers running the ball last season, Lewis’s biggest impact came in the passing game. He caught 36 passes for 388 yards, good for 10.8 yards per catch and three touchdowns through the air. He was on pace for 880 receiving yards, which would have led all runnings backs, with the aforementioned Woodhead coming in 125 yards behind him. In total, he averaged 88.8 yards from scrimmage per game, and gave the Patriots yet another weapon to deploy all across the formation, creating favorable matchups all across the field.
Lewis provides tremendous flexibility and versatility for the offense, giving Brady and Josh McDaniels yet another matchup nightmare to incorporate into the game plan. Last season, he often flanked Brady in shotgun, but also spent a good amount of time split out wide or lined up in the slot. After watching Week’s 5 and 6 of this season, the games White has seen the most snaps this season, it seems like the Patriots coaching staff doesn’t believe White has the same ability to play all across the formation as Lewis does.
In Week 5 against Cleveland, in which White gained a season-high 89 yards from scrimmage, he was split out wide or in the slot just 12% of his 38 snaps, and lined up flanking Brady in shotgun 69% of his snaps. In Week 6 against Cincinnati, White had a season-high 39 snaps, but spent only 10% of those out wide or in the slot, and again lined up next to Brady in shotgun 69% of the time. If he wasn’t staying in to contribute in pass protection, White was almost always leaking out of the pocket into the flats, with a linebacker in coverage. While this serves as a solid option on the majority of plays, especially when the Patriots need just a few yards, it does not offer the same game-breaking potential Lewis possesses.
To highlight the impact Lewis has, I took a look at one particular game from last season, Week 2 against Buffalo, in which Lewis played a season-high 73 snaps and had his highest yardage total of the year (138 yards from scrimmage). Out of his 73 snaps, he was split out wide or in the slot 33% of the time, with the majority of that time coming with a linebacker in coverage across from him. Lewis isolated in space against a linebacker is a matchup the Patriots probably dream about, and they got this matchup time and time again. After a few simple slants and hitches on plays earlier in the game to lull the linebacker in coverage to sleep, Lewis (who is split out wide to the left on this play) hits Nigel Bradham, the linebacker in coverage, with a stutter-step move, beating him with ease down the sideline for a gain of 40.
Later in the game, this sort of play forces the defender in coverage to give Lewis extra space on underneath routes because of the defenders reluctance to get beat over the top after biting on a short route, like what we saw happen earlier in the game. Because of this, Lewis (once again split out wide to the left) runs a simple slant past the linebacker (Preston Brown this time), and gains 16 easy yards in the process.
Lewis’s route tree is not complex; the only routes I saw in the Buffalo game were short slants across the middle, five-yard hitches, short outs to the sidelines, and of course the stutter-step move that Bradham was beaten so badly on earlier in the game. However, despite this simplicity, his ability in the open field is unparalleled, forcing defenders to give him a cushion off the line of scrimmage that leads to a 10-yard completion on a slant like we saw with the last play. If they bite on the slant too early, Lewis can use a double move, blowing by his defenders for chunk yardage. And good luck trying to play press man against Lewis at the line of scrimmage, because with moves like these:
No one, not even the most athletic of corners, has the ability to stay with Lewis off the line of scrimmage.
It will be very interesting to see how the Patriots use Lewis for the rest of the season as he makes his return off ACL surgery last November (and a separate surgery on the same knee this summer). The Patriots will absolutely take their time with Lewis, because they can afford to. Sitting at 7-1 and at the top of the AFC, they have the ability to be as patient as they need to be with a player of Lewis’s caliper returning from an injury of that magnitude. It also will be intriguing to see what the Patriots do with James White and whether or not he will see the field once Lewis gets back to full strength.
White has been a stellar backup in Lewis’s absence, but Lewis is simply too impactful a force to be splitting snaps with a player like White once he is fully healthy and back to game shape. Hopefully, Lewis can return to his 2015 form in time for the run to secure home-field advantage, with big games against formidable defenses looming on the horizon (Los Angeles in Week 13, Baltimore in Week 14, and Denver in Week 15). If Lewis manages to regain that 2015 form, the rest of the NFL might as well just pack it up and go home.