I have to be honest with you: I absolutely hated this signing when it happened. My opinion of Jamal Lewis was that he’d been on a steady decline over the past three seasons; he had a great season in 2003, but that was as much due to the Browns’ terrible run defense as it was due to his skill as a running back. His YPC dropped from 5.4 in 2003 to 4.3 in 2004 and then again to 3.4 in 2005; he lost two yards per carry over two seasons. That’s the classic sign of a guy whose career is a step away from being over. The ship wasn’t set right in 2006, either; he only got back up to 3.6 YPC.
In this case stats only tell portions of the story, though. That story is one of an ankle injured midway through the 2004, followed by a six-month prison sentence. The ankle was surgically repaired in prison, where “rehab” probably consisted mostly of “walking around the yard”. So, after missing all offseason conditioning and then coming back in 2005, he resumed play on an ankle that not only hadn’t gotten top-notch repair but also hadn’t rehabbed appropriately. The ankle developed then developed bone spurs, which caused excessive pain throughout the 2006 season. Lewis tried running on the “Larry Hughes” Novocain cocktail, but by that point another factor had started to creep in: the Ravens had started passing.
The real secret to both Jamal Lewis’ “success” and subsequent “decline” was the lack of balance on the Ravens offense. In 2003, the Ravens were dead last in passing yardage and attempts, and put up pretty terrible stats in every other category that the NFL tracks. Jamal Lewis was forced to shoulder the entire load. As teams keyed in on the fact that the Ravens’ offense consisted of Jamal Lewis and nothing else, they started loading the box and stuffing him in 2004. Why not? I mean, are you really that afraid of Kyle Boller? His touches declined because he wasn’t effective against nine man fronts, and as the team struggled they lost a total minute of possession time. So, they were on the field less, scoring less, and he didn’t get touches…plus, then he got hurt and it became a moot point anyways.
Then, in 2005, under new offensive coordinator Jim Fassel and with new quarterback Steve McNair, the Ravens started to throw more. Plus, blocking fullback Alan Ricard was phased out of the offense, leaving Lewis with one less blocker to clear the way. 2006 was more of the same; running out of single-back sets balanced with a passing attack.
So now we have a guy who had one year that’s defining everything he does negatively who got injured and wasn’t able to handle his injury effectively until recently. Jamal Lewis said that in 2006 he was running at 90%, and couldn’t make cuts that he was used to making due to the pain. This offseason, he’s had surgery to clean out the bone spurs in his ankle and has said that he’s running pain-free and is able to make those cuts. No promises, of course; this is still a situation in flux. Browns fans do have more reasons than I initially thought to be optimistic about Jamal Lewis’ season, though.
And we’re all well aware of what he can do when he’s at 100%.
Breaking Down the Browns: Running Backs - Bitterfans.com
07-14-2007, 06:00 AM
Jamal Lewis - Next Great Browns Running Back? 
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