Dion Lewis Filling Shane Vereen's Former Role to Perfection for Patriots

Ladies and gentlemen, meet New England Patriots running back Dion Lewis.

This message comes 60 football minutes too late, as the unknown runner already reintroduced himself to the world by gaining 120 yards from scrimmage as the Patriots bested the Pittsburgh Steelers, 28-21 in the regular-season opener.

And to think none of it might have been possible without the free-agent departure of Shane Vereen and the one-game suspension of LeGarrette Blount.

Absent their best pure running back and moving on to a new scat back, the Patriots turned to Lewis as their new Swiss army knife. Lewis gained 69 yards on 15 carries (4.6 yards per carry) and 51 yards on four receptions (12.8 yards per catch). He was the team's leading rusher and its third-leading receiver. 

"

Dion Lewis has 120 yards from scrimmage tonight. Entered the game with 192 career yards from scrimmage in 24 games.

— Kevin Duffy (@KevinRDuffy) September 11, 2015"

There's no other way to put it; Thursday night was a coming-out party for Lewis.

"Dion's been showing that in practice," said wide receiver Julian Edelman. "That's why he's playing. He's been consistent. It's exciting to have a guy like him out there making plays."

It's hard to believe from watching on Thursday night that Lewis was actually out of football in 2014. He was signed by the Indianapolis Colts on September 9, 2014 and was cut a week later. He did not play in a game, and did not record a single statistic.

In fact, the last time he landed on the stat sheet was in 2012, when he posted 69 yards on 13 carries and scored a touchdown, along with two receptions for 24 yards. Those were his stats for the entire season. Minus the touchdown, he surpassed that production on Thursday night. Were it not for a goal-line fumble, Lewis would have put up better numbers in one game than he had in an entire season in 2012.

Stew Milne-USA TODAY Sports

But he never got a chance to prove what he could do for an NFL offense. Maybe that—along with rehab from a broken leg—is why he was out of football in 2014.

"It was a test of my character," Lewis said after the game. "God gave me a test to see how bad I really wanted it. That's all I can think. So just taking the challenge of overcoming adversity. I've been dealing with it my whole life."

By the numbers, Lewis wanted it as badly as he wanted it in all of 2012.

"I've always worked pretty hard. You've just got to dig deep. There's days you don't want to work out, but you've got to do it anyway. You've just got to keep working and put yourself in a position to succeed."

The Patriots weren't just copying Blount's role and projecting it onto Lewis; that would be a misuse of his skill set, which is based much more on quickness and open-field running ability than on bulldozing and hammering opposing defenders into submission. In that sense, you could say the Patriots copied a little from Vereen's role with the Patriots from 2011-2014.

Lewis was a factor in the passing game, in ways we don't usually see from running backs. He was split out wide, running patterns into the secondary and caught a screen out in the open field. 

"Since OTAs I've been asked to do that," Lewis said, "so I've worked real hard over the summer when we had a little break and I was going to be prepared for whatever the coaches asked me to do."

Vereen did many of the same things in his time with the team, but the third-down role has been heavily contested between Lewis, James White and Travaris Cadet. For now, it appears Lewis has a hold of the role. 

Unless otherwise noted, all game notes and quotes obtained first-hand.