Jamal Lewis Doesn't Always Get Better When He Touches the Ball More

Last year fans practically begged to see more of Jerome Harrison, but week-in and week-out he rode the pine.

Several rumors circulated as to why Harrison had only 34 touches last year, such as his poor blocking or a personal grudge with Coach Crennel.  I've read an article or two dispelling the blocking accusation saying how improved he's been since his early struggles. Besides, we see plenty of scatbacks even smaller than Harrison making blocks in the NFL. So what could it have been then?

My theory is that it was the typical Romeo Crennel veteran favoritism. As a player's coach, he'd typically side with experience over youth.  It happened at several positions—Willie McGinist was good example. 

Romeo failed to develop young talent even when it seems that the young guns were gaining on the vets.  He was old as death, but always got the start when healthy.  

I think that Jamal Lewis was the ultimate case in point.  He's certainly proved himself in the league posting over 10,100 career yards. Romeo felt Jamal was deserving and even helped him get 1,000 yards last year, a threshold he crossed on his very last attempt. 

Jamal has always said he gets better as the game goes on and he gets more touches and Romeo probably gave him the benefit of the doubt.  This has always been the perception about Jamal, but is it actually true?  I checked some stats to see if this was actually the case.

Turns out this theory is somewhat true. I figured this out by figuring out that his average attempts per year about 299.8 and then figured out how he does on either side of this figure.  Looking over his eight year career, it turns out that in the four years in which he carried the ball more than 299.8 times, he averaged 4.4 yards per carry. On the other side of 299.8, his average drops all the way down to 3.925.

But I also wanted to see how the theory applies on a game-by-game basis.  I looked at last year's numbers since they are more relevant to this year than say, 2003 when he had over 2,000 yards.

I counted only games in which Lewis had 10 or more carries to avoid injuries tainting my stats. On average No. 31 touched the ball 18.13 times a game last year. Games in which he went over that number he averaged 3.42 yards per carry and games in which he went under he averaged 4.33 yards per carry. There is a significant difference considering his overall average was 3.6.

These stats tell us some interesting things.  First off, over his career it is indeed true that Jamal is the classic workhorse, improving as he gets more carries.  However, at least with last year, we see a Jamal that can share attempts and still be productive.  

This bodes well for James Davis, Jerome Harrison and the Browns in general.  The prospect of seeing more of our young guys should also give the fans something to be excited about. 

The other conclusion we can take from this is that he may in fact be running out of steam. He just can't carry the burden he used too and for Jamal fans such as Romeo Crennel, this might be a hard thing to accept.