When Dion Lewis was taken in the fifth round in last year's draft, I still imagined he'd contribute a bit more than he has so far this season.
But in 2011, he's barely gotten on the field as a running back. He has a total of only nine attempts for 34 yards and is still looking for his first career touchdown. He hasn't had more than two carries in any given game. Problem is, though, that no one other than Shadys getting any carries. After the quarterbacks, Ronnie Brown's next in line - and he's only had 22. The Eagles have pretty much dumped the entire load on McCoy, but without a fumble all season, he's been incredibly reliable.
Off the field, Lewis has even had a bit of trouble. He was in a car accident a few weeks ago and was a surprise inactive in the game immediately following it.
Safe to say, this probably isn't what Lewis envisioned this year. With fellow Pitt mate Shady leading the Eagles' ground attack, no one really believed Lewis would come in and compete for carries. But I'm surprised he hasn't even had any mop up duty.
The season, though, hasn't been a complete wash.
He's been Philly's primary kick returner and is seeing action there. He's also done fairly well in the role, ranking 14th in the league with more than 600 yards and an average of just over 22 yards per return.It'd be unfair to paint the picture that Lewis has been a supreme disappointment. First, he's only 21 and it's easy to forget that he would have just been a junior at Pitt this season. Plus, it's not like he's had his opportunities and just didn't come through - it's hard to do much of anything with only nine carries.
Plus, as I said, he's done a good job on returns so he's definitely contributed to the team.. Still, I'm sure Lewis would have expected he'd have more than nine carries to this point in the season.