Dion Lewis’ college coach explains how he became the Patriots’ unlikely star

Two things have been synonymous with the Patriots’ offense under Bill Belichick. One is Tom Brady. The other is the consistent lack of a featured running back.

The organization has had just five 1,000-yard rushers in Belichick’s 18 seasons in charge. The best season ever by a Belichick Patriots tailback is certainly Corey Dillon’s 2004, when the ex-Bengal ran for 1,635 yards (at 4.7 yards per carry) and 12 touchdowns en route to a Super Bowl win. Other than Dillon, New England has, with rare exceptions, thrived with running backs you never heard of before or after their Foxborough stints: the BenJarvus Green-Ellises, the Stevan Ridleys, the Antowain Smiths, and the Laurence Maroneys of the world.

In 2017, Dion Lewis has gone about having one of New England’s best running back seasons under Belichick the same way he goes about everything else: quietly.

“Dion’s a quiet kid,” Dave Wannstedt, his college head coach at Pittsburgh in 2009 and 2010, told SB Nation. “He’s not gonna be your out-front leader. He’s not a rah-rah guy.”

In the regular season, Lewis averaged 5 yards per carry. LeGarrette Blount in 2013 is the only other Patriots tailback under Belichick to reach that mark on 100 carries or more. Lewis had a slightly heavier workload this year than Blount did then, and you could argue without reaching too hard that 2017 Lewis has been the most efficient running back Belichick has ever coached in Foxborough.

He’s paired his running numbers with 32 catches on 35 targets out of the backfield, a 91 percent catch rate that dwarfs that of any other back Belichick has ever used this much in the passing game. Among Patriots running backs under Belichick, only Kevin Faulk (twice in the 2000s) has caught more balls than Lewis while also carrying 100 times.

When Lewis was a college recruit, he had few scholarship offers. He was 5’6 or 5’7 and didn’t have standout speed. Pitt started recruiting him in the summer of 2008, when Wannstedt started to think LeSean McCoy might turn pro after two college seasons. Jeff Hafley, then a Pitt assistant and now the 49ers’ secondary coach, found Lewis at Blair Academy in Blairstown, N.J. Wannstedt said he watched eight plays of Lewis’ tape, invited his family to campus, and offered him a scholarship immediately.

“The thing that caught my attention on tape was he could start and stop in the hole as fast and as quick as any running back that I’ve ever been around,” Wannstedt said. “He’s not Barry Sanders, OK? But he ran like Barry. He didn’t run like [Tony] Dorsett, and I was around him and Ricky Williams and LeSean McCoy. His style was different.”

McCoy did turn pro after 2008, and Lewis became a freshman sensation replacing him. He finished 12 scrimmage yards shy of 2,000 and scored 18 touchdowns, with almost all of that coming on the ground. He earned various freshman and All-America honors. He was the first player since Michael Vick in 1999 to win Big East Offensive Player of the Year and Rookie of the Year in the same season.

Lewis was an elite running back again as a sophomore, but he fell from 1,799 yards rushing to 1,061 and lost some national shine. Lewis declared for the draft after two college seasons, as McCoy had done before him.

He was underwhelming at the NFL Scouting Combine, where he measured in at 5’7 and 193 pounds and ran the 40-yard dash in 4.57 seconds — good, but not great for a tiny running back. The Eagles picked Lewis in the fifth round in 2011 with the 149th pick.

“I won’t name ‘em, but I can tell you a fact that there’s some general managers out there that unless the running back is 5’11, they’ll take him off the draft board. You know what I mean? So being 5’6 and not running 4.4, you know, they overlook all the other stuff. It’s real quick to make decisions if you’re just looking at the measureables.”

Lewis played two years in Philadelphia as a backup before he was traded to the Browns. Wannstedt said Cleveland’s then-offensive coordinator, Norv Turner, a friend, called him shortly before the season to tell him Lewis would be his starting tailback. But Lewis broke his fibula, missed all of 2013, and was cut the next year. The Colts also cut him quickly after signing him in 2014, and Lewis could’ve been done.

He’s been tremendously valuable as a scrap-heap pickup. He was the Patriots’ primary backup to Blount and chipped in off the bench in the Patriots’ Super Bowl run. And this year, with Blount in Philadelphia and fellow backs Rex Burkhead, James White, and Mike Gillislee often injured, he’s become offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels’ workhorse.

In the regular season, Lewis finished just 12 yards from scrimmage behind receiver Brandin Cooks for the team lead.

He’s good at the things you’d expect a 5’7 running back to be good at, like taking screens and check-downs and winding through defenders in the open field:

And he’s good at the things you would not expect a 5’7 running back to be good at, like breaking tackles and pushing forward after contact, not stalling. He mixes that with underrated patience and Le’Veon Bell-like start-and-stop ability:

Lewis packs a heavy punch. He’s been doing that for a while.

“He would get a lot of yards after contact,” Wannstedt recalls of Lewis’ days lighting up the Big East. “No one expected it ‘cause he was so small. I see the same thing now in New England. If you don’t wrap him up, he’s gonna run through an arm tackle, and I think people underestimate his strength because of his height and his size.”

After the Colts cut him in 2014, Lewis texted Wannstedt, his former coach said, and Wannstedt “started rolodexing.” The Patriots weren’t even on his call sheet. Lewis’ career was on life support two years before he’ll gun for his second ring.

“We were trying to get him back in the league, you know?” Wannstedt said. “So he’s a survivor. He’s a tough little survivor. That’s how you’ve gotta look at him.”