NFL LIVE Crew Chimes in on Loss of Dion Lewis to Patriots Offense

The Patriots announced Monday that Albany native Dion Lewis is out for season with a torn ACL. The NFL LIVE crew broke down how big of a loss this is to New England: 

Merrill Hoge: "It's not devastating but it does hurt. The NFL is about creating matches and he is a nightmare matchup for the Patriots. They can use him in a lot of different ways and they're game specific. Let's say they run across a team that's really suspect underneath with their linebackers, he's a great weapon to have that they're no longer going to have. You just don't dilute the defense as much when you don't have as much depth on your offense."

Ron Jaworski: "It's all about dimensions offensively and he added another dimension. When Dion Lewis was healthy, they were averaging 13 snaps of empty formation with 0 snaps in the backfield and they were very effective. They lose that formation and that dimension along with the amount of times they use that formation."

Herm Edwards: "The Patriots are game-plan specific. When they lost him, they didn't have the ability of a running back getting out of the backfield. They run a lot of motion with Julian Edelman and Amendola, across the formations, They would put them in on third down and see them adjacent of the quarterback and use Lewis to get that one-on-one matchup."