Following the 2009 season it looked like University of Pittsburgh running back Dion Lewis was on his way to super-stardom. 325 carries for 1,799 yards and 17 touchdowns as a freshman. He broke Pitt rushing rushing records set by Tony Dorsett and Craig "Ironhead" Heyward. He was nearly everyone's Freshman of the Year and made several All-American teams. He entered the 2010 season as a pre-season All-American and Heisman Trophy favorite. It's not that his sophomore was a bust. It was actually quite productive. 219 carries for 1,061 yards and 13 touchdowns. It just paled in comparison to his incredible freshman season. It was still enough for Lewis to consider himself ready for the NFL. He decided to forgo his junior and senior seasons and enter the 2011 NFL Draft. He decided to follow the same path taken by fellow former Pitt football player Larry Fitzgerald and leave school after only two seasons. Both had attended a prep school before enrolling at Pitt so both were three years removed from the high school graduation. Both were eligible for the draft. Unlike Fitzgerald, NFL success hasn't come easy for Dion Lewis.
The Philadelphia Eagles selected Lewis in the fifth round of the 2011 NFL Draft. As a rookie he was used mostly as a kick returner. In two seasons, and 24 games, with the Eagles he had only 36 carries for 171 yards and two touchdowns. He was a minor role player in the NFL. The Eagles traded him to the Cleveland Browns on April 11, 2013. He landed on injured reserve with a broken leg. The Browns released him on August 30, 2014. The Indianapolis Colts signed him a little over a week later and released him a week after that. Five years removed from an attention-grabbing freshman football season and Dion Lewis was staring at the possible end of his football career before it even started.
The New England Patriots signed Lewis to a future/reserve contract. His career had some life. Patriots head coach Bill Belichick is one of the best judges of football talent that the game has ever known. He can see possibilities in the talents of players that most observers never consider. Who knows what Belichick saw in Lewis but he saw enough to bring him in for offseason workouts and training camp. Lewis made the final 53-man roster. The Patriots needed a running back to step up early with starter LeGarrette Blount suspended for the first two games of the season. Lewis was tapped to be that back. He did much more than just fill in for Blount. He starred. He gave the Patriots offense a versatile running and receiving threat out of the backfield. He helped make a very difficult offense to defend even more difficult to defend. His play through three games also brought him football security. The Patriots signed him to a two-year contract extension on Thursday. The extension is potentially worth $5 million. It's a $3 million base with about $2 million in incentives and bonuses. It's a bargain for the Patriots at every angle. Especially when compared to the contract signed by the running back that Lewis essentially replaced. The New York Giants signed Shane Vereen in the offseason to a three-year, $12.35 million deal with $5 million guaranteed. In something that you don't often see in professional sports Lewis is giving the Patriots a bargain for their faith in him.
"They gave me a chance," Lewis said. "That's all I can ask for. They gave me a chance, so it's on me to repay them as well. They showed a commitment to me, and now I've got to honor that, keep going out there and making it right. They gave me a chance. That's how I'll repay them."
Refreshing. If he keeps playing like he's been playing he was due to cash in pretty good next March. The shortness of the extension still allows Lewis the possibility of a lucrative future while providing the job security that he's been looking for the past four years.
The Patriots have a continuous churn at the running back position. They rarely make a serious commitment to any back let alone a modest one like this commitment to Lewis. It's good to see this happen for a football player that never gave up on his dream.
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