On 10/29/2015 at 10:40 PM, Adam Harstad said:
On 10/29/2015 at 8:29 PM, Ministry of Pain said:
On 10/29/2015 at 8:11 PM, Adam Harstad said:
He's ludicrously skilled.
Lewis is the real deal. He's a star. Elusive, but still runs with power. Fluid, runs great routes, and is strong in pass protection, too. Easily the best RB to play in the New England "system" in a decade.
I'm sorry Adam but that's a statement I have no reply for. It would insinuate that he is the best RB in the NFL or at least top5...you used the word ludicrous btw. It is at least in part the system. The OC went on to be a HC and then came back and inserted his offense all over again and part of it is this "role" that they were trying to fill with Shane Vereen. Go back and read some of those threads if you like.
The NE offense supports a WR1 like Edelman, Gronk and then another key receiver whether it is/was a TE2 like AH, then it was Vereen, now its Lewis. he is making plays but go watch that TD play he had tonight, nobody touched him, the entire middle of th efield was wide open, the area was cleared and he ran almost untouched to the goal line.
Real Deal to me are guys like ADP, Lynch, Bell, those guys are real RBs.
I think some of you are way too defensive. I never said the guy was garbage, even identify as an owner, filled out many DK and FD with him in there but to say he is special seems like a stretch to me right now. I wouldn't be jumping up and down if he landed on the Miami Dolphins next week.
I said at one point early in 2010 that if aliens showed up on earth and decided to learn what this "football" thing was, they'd think Arian Foster and Darren McFadden were two of the top five running backs in the NFL. Free of the burden of preconceived notions, evaluating them strictly on the merits of their play, they were easily in that upper tier.
If aliens showed up on earth this August and decided to learn what this "football" thing was, they would think Dion Lewis was one of the top five running backs in the NFL. (Along with Bell, Gurley, Freeman, and Ivory, I would say.) No preconceived notions about the "New England system", or knowledge that Lewis was out of football recently, or any idea about anyone's pedigree... just evaluating the quality of their play and the impact on their team.
Does this seem like lofty praise? Good. It's intended as lofty praise. Dion Lewis has looked
phenomenal. I've referred back to Foster's 2010 season several times so far this year, because that's the last time I remember a back that far off the radar in June coming in and playing this out of his mind in September and October.
Reasonable people are welcome to disagree. But I just want to be super-clear that when I say that Dion Lewis looks like a star, I don't mean it in any sense that dilutes the meaning of the word "star". I mean he looks like one of the few truly elite, game-changing running backs in the NFL today.
Yes, Dion Lewis was essentially untouched on his touchdown tonight. So was Rob Gronkowski, but you won't see me calling Rob Gronkowski a product of the system. Why? Because there are a lot of *OTHER* plays where Gronkowski is not virtually untouched, and he makes something happen merely by imposing his will on the defense.
Dion Lewis is capable of imposing his will on the defense. Look at him breaking ankles on that short little out route at around 4:47 in the 1st quarter. Gets the ball with a defender right on top of him, performs the quickest and minutest of fakes of the inside spin, instead spins outside, leaves the defender grasping air and searching for his cleats, and races for 18 or 19 yards.
Look at him on his 11-yard run early in the 3rd quarter. Immediately runs into junk, performs three quick full-speed cuts to weave through traffic for a first down. Look at him leave his feet to one-hand a badly thrown pass against Dallas only to juke out five defenders without the assistance of any blockers for a touchdown.
It's not the easy plays like the untouched touchdown that make me high on Dion Lewis. It's these spectacular plays where there's absolutely nothing there and Lewis is still getting 10+ yards and making multiple defenders miss on every touch. And it's the times New England splits him out wide and has him run legit WR routes, (as opposed to the "RB spit out wide to WR routes" that, say, Denver assigns to Hillman and Anderson.) And it's the image I linked to earlier in the thread of Dion Lewis positively stonewalling a pass-rusher 1.5 times his size coming in with a full head of steam.
Dion Lewis is everything Lamar Miller's supporters have forlornly been trying to make Lamar Miller into for the last year and a half. I know that his past history counts for something, and New England's past history counts for something, and Adrian Peterson's past history counts for something, and Marshawn Lynch's past history counts for something. I'm not saying that I think Dion Lewis is one of the top 5 RBs in the entire NFL right now.
I'm saying Dion Lewis is playing like one of the top 5 RBs in the entire NFL right now. I'm saying it because I believe it.
This thread is a hot topic these days...
well a few of us did. 
Great breakdown
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