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Friday Film Room: Possible Dion Lewis Replacments, James White and Brandon Bolden

Breaking down the two running backs who will replace Dion Lewis in the Patriots' explosive offense
Greg M. Cooper-USA TODAY Sports

Dion Lewis was so fun.

Here was this 5'7" kid who had a massive redshirt freshman year at Pitt and declared for the draft as a redshirt sophomore; went in the fifth round; saw only 46 carries combined his first two years with the Eagles; got traded to the Browns and suffered a gnarly-looking broken leg in the preseason; tried out with the Colts and didn't make the team, only to land as a free-agent signee with the Patriots this summer after two full years away from football. And, then, he went bananas.

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Now, he's gone. A torn ACL ended Lewis' season last Sunday, and one of the true joystick players in the game—Julian Edelman refers to him as "Little Dirty"—is off the field again.

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For fantasy football purposes, we're looking for a replacement. Any skill player whoTom Brady regularly relies upon can be fantasy gold, and the Patriots mix up their game plans from week to week as much as any team in the league. LeGarrette Blount is the big back in New England, but he's not a pass catcher. When the Pats go spread—and Brady has been in shotgun on 293 of 529 (55 percent) of his snaps—Blount's sluggishness can stymie the team's quick-hitting offense. That's where Lewis was so excellent; yes, he had 49 rush attempts, but his 36 catches for 388 yards and two TDs were invaluable. This became known as the "Shane Vereen" role, after it was known as the "Kevin Faulk" role. Simply put: the Patriots offense will excel when it has a smaller, pass-catching back, and that guy has a potentially valuable fantasy role awaiting him.

The two in-house replacement candidates are second-year man James White and fourth-year back Brandon Bolden. Neither player has laid down extensive regular-season game tape, but it behooves us to dig, if only to get a sense of which player might get first crack at the "Dion Lewis" role.

Brandon Bolden is a thick (5'11", 220-pound) player who has reliability in his favor. The Pats have trusted him in key special teams situations for years, and he's picked up some offensive work when occasions warranted. He actually flashed last week against Washington after Lewis suffered his injury, and was called on precisely because he plays special teams: he was active, and White (who doesn't play teams) was not. So it was Bolden who made this play:

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Of course, this is what a running back is supposed to do when he's matched up out wide one-on-one with a not-very-agile linebacker like Perry Riley. I think, at most turns, "adequacy" sums up Bolden's game. He's fine. He'll do in a pinch. On occasion he might give you something like this, from Week 6 of 2014:

That's a nice cut that causes the second tackler to miss and proves Bolden isn't strictly a run-straight-ahead-and-fall-down player. But most of the time, I'd say while Bolden appears to be a sure-handed receiver, he's not going to do much more than take what the defense gives him. In my parlance, that's a "ham-and-egger":

This run from Week 3 of last year—these were the pre-Blount days, when Bolden was Stevan Ridley's understudy—captures what I view as Bolden's limitations. He sidesteps a tackler right in front of him, which is fine, and glides out to the left. Julian Edelman has a nice block out wide, and if Bolden can beat the Raiders' Miles Burris to the sideline, he might be able to turn it up-field. But that's probably just not going to happen. Bolden doesn't have a lot of juice. For some reason he feints right, planting his right foot and allowing the defense to close in on him, and pfft. Kind of a nothing run.

With James White, who is 5'10" and 205 pounds, there's less to go on and more theoretical speed upside. He barely played as a rookie; disappointing, considering he's got a fourth-round pedigree and the Patriots had backfield injury problems. He hasn't gotten much more work as a sophomore, with seven carries and seven receptions, mostly in blowout situations, so far in 2015. He's also been a healthy scratch twice. However, White already got a chance, back in Week 7 against the Jets. Lewis was suffering from an abdominal injury and was a late inactive, and White started.

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Unfortunately, these were his most notable plays:

That second one concerns me and backs up an overriding impression I got watching all of White's professional snaps, including the preseason: He's not that explosive. Whereas Lewis careened up-field practically every time he touched the ball and cut multiple times in a single run, White glides to the point of molasses:

There's nothing really wrong with this run; sometimes a cutback lane doesn't present itself and the runner kind of needs to glide toward the sidelines. And, frankly, criticizing gliding runners is a dumb generalization; Eric Dickerson was a glider and he was amazing. But in the limited film I have of James White, I haven't really seen him mix it up and hit it hard, do the sharp, cutting work that Lewis made seem so effortless. But White still might be a better initial candidate to become productive here than Bolden. He's faster and also has pretty good hands.

I don't think either of these players would be potential fantasy factors on too many NFL teams, but the Patriots aren't just "any team." Frankly, I don't think Shane Vereen is a particularly special player, either, but he had 47 and 52 catches in his final two seasons with the Pats. In this offense, if a receiving back can consistently stay on the field, he's going to find himself as a safety valve with a lot of room to run at least a few times per game.

And I guess that's the question: if James White or Brandon Bolden becomes the third-down and spread-formation back, can they approximate Dion Lewis, who still ranks as a top-20 fantasy back in standard-scoring leagues and tied for eighth in PPR? Or are they likelier to be Vereen – who despite all those catches in New England, never exceeded 850 scrimmage yards or scored more than five TDs in a season?

My tendency is to believe that White's upside is merely Vereen-esque, and as such he'll be more useful in a PPR league and probably only as a flex. Bolden's upside might be even lower than that. I wish I liked their tape more, but I won't be shocked if both guys play and are meh. The biggest winner here is probably Blount, who in lieu of Lewis' insane quicks, probably will stay on the field in a wider range of situations.

Christopher Harris (@HarrisFootball) is a six-time Fantasy Sports Writing Association award winner. He hosts the Harris Football Podcast every weekday. Find it on iTunes, Stitcher, TuneIn and most other podcast apps, as well as at www.HarrisFootball.com