FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- Dion Lewis is now the New England Patriots' leading rusher on the season, having seized the top spot on the depth chart after opening the year near the bottom. With each week, he seems to be building more momentum.

In doing so, Lewis' physical makeup has drawn more attention, as he's the smaller back who delivers in a big man's game.

Lewis is listed at 5-foot-8 (which might be generous), which definitely registers as small in the NFL game. But just don't call him little because at 195 pounds, Lewis takes great pride in not being tackled easily.

"There are a lot of backs that go into that category that are short, but they're not small guys," coach Bill Belichick said. "They have good lower-body strength. They can take contact, and run through arm tackles, run through contact. I would definitely put him into that category."

Belichick reflected on another running back with a similar build, former New York Giant Joe Morris (1982-1991), who was "short but not little" and handled a lead-back role.

Lewis is definitely the Patriots' lead back at the moment. His 55 yards rushing in Sunday's win over the Raiders gave him a team-high total of 386 on the season, and it sounds like the coaching staff is going to keep feeding him.

"He's playing well and he's got a good, solid role on our team," offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels said.

That role is growing. Lewis averaged 12.8 offensive snaps per game through the first five contests of the season. Since that time, it's 26.4.

"I think he's had a pretty good year. He did a lot of good things for us in training camp. We gave him a significant amount of play time in the preseason games including kickoff returns, so I think he's done a pretty good job all year," Belichick said. "He's got good balance, good lower-body strength and good vision. When guys get a shot at him he's able to maintain his balance and get through a lot of those hits. I think that's a credit to his strength, and his power and his balance. He's short, but he's not a little guy."

McDaniels pointed out that Lewis, who tore his ACL in November of 2015, is a "great example of what we would love for our guys to do coming off an injury."

As for his physical makeup, McDaniels said: "Dion's not thin, that's for sure. He's got power, he's got quickness, he's got speed. He does a lot of things well. Sometimes he can be difficult to find back there from the defense's perspective. We're very happy with how hard he runs and taking care of the ball, doing a good job with ball security and gaining extra yards after contact and making people miss in space. Those are things we like all our backs to do, and right now we've got guys that are doing that and Dion's certainly one of them."