Chris Wesseling's list of Top 10 Satellite Backs in the NFL:

IcyPatriot said:

https://twitter.com/ChrisWesseling

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For years I've been saying - they gotta get a back with a high "Elusive Rating".

patchick said:

Speaking of Woodhead: he's a full inch taller than Lewis.

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Danny Woodhead is a legit 5'5". My Mom ran into him on a plane and said he was shorter than her. She's 5'6".

Ice_Ice_Brady said:

Classic Bill Belichick. Colts throw a boat load of money at Gore, who is broken down. Giants yank Vereen away and Pats choose not to match. Pats sign a borderline camp tryout guy and make him better than either of those two guys, for much less money.

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I never thought Lewis would do anything, shows what I know. Gore has looked pretty mediocre; everyone thought he was just going to have to be better than what the colts had last year because Luck was going to be awesome but that hasn't worked so far

Chiuba E. Obele said:

Holy **** bro!

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TommyD4207 said:

Danny Woodhead is a legit 5'5". My Mom ran into him on a plane and said he was shorter than her. She's 5'6".

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I'm surprised she even recognized him.

This is one of my favorite videos of this kind. I wouldn't doubt he's shorter than 5'6"

I am extremely pleasantly surprised about Lewis. I think that overall he is better than Vereen. Vereen did some nice things, especially wheel routes, or getting open on quick option routes. But I never liked him after the catch, execpt his full outs sprints on wheel routes. He was never that good at creating yards with the ball in his hands. Lewis on the other hand is much more similar to Woodhead with the ball, they have that ability to get make tacklers miss and pick up yards you didn't think was there.

The success of players like Lewis and Andrews only helps the Pats with future UDFAs and FAs. Not to mention Butler, Siliga, Etc.

Elijah said:

David Johnson has 7 NFL touches from scrimmage...

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And three TDs already. Johnson will be a good one.

Ice_Ice_Brady said:

Classic Bill Belichick. Colts throw a boat load of money at Gore, who is broken down. Giants yank Vereen away and Pats choose not to match. Pats sign a borderline camp tryout guy and make him better than either of those two guys, for much less money.

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I'm starting to but the narrative that BB is a dirty cheater. Like how does he do this he's truly a genius.

Marinlik said:

I am extremely pleasantly surprised about Lewis. I think that overall he is better than Vereen. Vereen did some nice things, especially wheel routes, or getting open on quick option routes. But I never liked him after the catch, execpt his full outs sprints on wheel routes. He was never that good at creating yards with the ball in his hands. Lewis on the other hand is much more similar to Woodhead with the ball, they have that ability to get make tacklers miss and pick up yards you didn't think was there.

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Maybe that's why Lewis has to work especially hard to protect the ball. He can break tackles and pick up those extra yards, but does so at the risk of exposing himself to defenders who can strip him and cause him to fumble.

Ice_Ice_Brady said:

Classic Bill Belichick. Colts throw a boat load of money at Gore, who is broken down. Giants yank Vereen away and Pats choose not to match. Pats sign a borderline camp tryout guy and make him better than either of those two guys, for much less money.

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He really is playing chess while everyone else excels at checkers. How else can you explain what is going on, it's not luck, this happens way too often to chalk it up to luck. Nope, this is all by design, they do their homework and position players to succeed, game after game, year after year.

ALP said:

youre kidding?

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TommyD4207 said:

Danny Woodhead is a legit 5'5". My Mom ran into him on a plane and said he was shorter than her. She's 5'6".

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Nope, not kidding -- and no offense to your sainted mom, but I'll take official weigh-in numbers over her airplane eyeball test.

Danny Woodhead is 5' 7 5/8" tall, exactly the same as Kevin Faulk and Leon Washington. Dion Lewis is 5' 6 5/8", one of the smallest players in the NFL.

IcyPatriot said:

Lewis is in the thick of some elite company in this man's opinion.
http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap30...-bernard-leads-list-of-top-10-satellite-backs

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No one has a higher opinion of BB's personnel skills than me, his ability to stay at the top despite drafting at the near the end of each round every year, as well as his ability to turn UDFA into gold, is amazing.

However, maybe because I don't live in the Boston area (no water cooler or bar conversations on the Pats, no talk radio on the Pats-although perhaps that is a plus), perhaps I am a day late and a dollar short on the Lewis bandwagon. Help educate me a bit on this (seriously, I'm not being snarky).

Admittedly this was before the season started, but I thought I remembered that many on this board were opining that Lewis would primarily be a gimmick back because: i) he was lousy at the blitz pickup; ii) he was too small and injury prone to be able to survive too many snaps for the season.

Regarding the first issue (the blitz pickup), what is the story? I've always considered that a vital skill for a third down back (that was what made Faulk elite). Has Lewis done much better than expected? Of, because of Rex's game plan of only rushing three (and Pittsburg lack of a pass rush), was it irrelevant?

Regarding the second, is the thinking now that Lewis is so elusive that he may be able to contribute to a significant number of snaps this year? Danny Woodhead wasn't much bigger, but he was tough and he was fairly durable. What is the latest thinking about Lewis's durability? As far as I can tell from a one minute Google search he seemed fairly durable in college at Pitt.

A friend of mine and I were discussing Lewis and closest comparison was Dave Meggett (minus the rape and burglary). I think BB coached at NYG when Meggett was still there.

fgssand said:

How else can you explain what is going on

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Fencer said:

BB seems to approve too. He was complimenting the TD celebrations in his breakdown-with-Zolak video, and I don't recall that ever happening before.

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In the Belichick Football Life, he was showing the team footage from the 2008 Denver game, emphasizing the team celebrations. His point was that he wasn't seeing the same kind of joy and unity from the 2009 squad, even showing contrasting film of guys just milling around after plays.

He apparently has little problem with guys "just having fun out there."

Dagg said:

A friend of mine and I were discussing Lewis and closest comparison was Dave Meggett (minus the rape and burglary). I think BB coached at NYG when Meggett was still there.

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Not a bad comparison.

I recall Meggett being a pretty tough blocker, ala Faulk -- or am I mixing him up in that respect with Keith Byars?

Meggett also was effective throwing the halfback option pass, but no comparison is perfect ...

Ice_Ice_Brady said:

Classic Bill Belichick. Colts throw a boat load of money at Gore, who is broken down. Giants yank Vereen away and Pats choose not to match. Pats sign a borderline camp tryout guy and make him better than either of those two guys, for much less money.

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To add to this, the Colts signed (& later released) Dion Lewis last year!

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/source--colts-sign-rb-dion-lewis-to-two-year-deal-212750448-nfl.html

fgssand said:

How else can you explain what is going on.

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Deus Irae said:

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Deus, I don't think that anyone is arguing that having Tom Brady isn't a gigantic advantage for BB. I would go much further and argue that it is an unprecedented advantage, I don't think any player has contributed so much to a NFL franchise's success, he really is the greatest of all time. He had done more with fewer weapons (and less support from a running game) than any previous quarterback. The amount that he has to shoulder (and that we have grown to expect) is remarkable.

That said, I still think that the Patriots front office has done a excellent job over the last 14 years considering that they draft near the end of the round every year, a gigantic disadvantage (not to mention the draft picks stolen by the NFL). From 2001-2015, they have had only one 9-7 season and two 10-6 seasons, all others have been better. Tom Brady has been a large part of why that is, we all agree. I just don't think that an average personnel department (even with the great Tom Brady as quarterback) would have been able to sustain that level of success all of these years, 14 years without a record worse than 9-7! If Tom Brady had ended up with some average organization I would still expect that he would have some Superbowl rings but just not the sustained success of the Patriots. And of course, who knows what the success of the Patriots would have been without him, I dread the day when we find out.

zydecochris said:

That said, I still think that the Patriots front office has done a excellent job over the last 14 years considering that they draft near the end of the round every year, a gigantic disadvantage (not to mention the draft picks stolen by the NFL). From 2001-2015, they have had only one 9-7 season and two 10-6 seasons, all others have been better. Tom Brady has been a large part of why that is, we all agree. I just don't think that an average personnel department (even with the great Tom Brady as quarterback) would have been able to sustain that level of success all of these years, 14 years without a record worse than 9-7! If Tom Brady had ended up with some average organization I would still expect that he would have some Superbowl rings but just not the sustained success of the Patriots. And of course, who knows what the success of the Patriots would have been without him, I dread the day when we find out.

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Go take a look at how bad some of Polian's drafts were, yet the Colts stayed on top as long as Manning was there. Note the struggles of Denver in the years preceding Manning's arrival, compared to the team's success since. There is no greater 'GM' in football than a truly elite QB.