Joe Douglas and the New York Jets are actively seeking a trade partner for Le’Veon Bell‘s services, per multiple reports.
The New York Jets are trying to trade running back Le’Veon Bell, per Manish Mehta of the New York Daily News. ESPN’s Rich Cimini reported the same news a little later.
Mehta also reported that Bell told friends (before the season) that he would request a trade if things continued to sour this season. It appears everybody involved has hit that endpoint.
Bell, 28, carved out a great five years in Pittsburgh with the Steelers. Drafted in the second round of the 2013 NFL draft, Bell put up remarkable numbers with his original team.
One of the top backs in the league (at the time) tallied 5,336 yards and 35 touchdowns on 1,229 carries (4.3 yards per carry), and backed it up with 2,660 yards and seven touchdowns on 312 total receptions.
That same Bell hasn’t translated to New Jersey.
In 2019, Bell put forth the worst season of his career, tallying just 789 yards and three touchdowns on a 3.2 yards-per-carry mark in 15 games.
Since Sunday’s 30-10 loss to the Arizona Cardinals, the Bell-Adam Gase saga heated up again with the former liking several tweets suggesting his head coach hasn’t utilized him properly. Gase wishes he wouldn’t run to social media upon immediate frustration.
“I mean, I hate that’s the route that we go with all this, instead of just talking to me about it, but seems the way that guys want to do it nowadays,” Gase told reporters on a Monday conference call.
He even liked a tweet suggesting that the Jets trade the man. It now appears he might be getting that wish.
For the Jets, it needs to be a lesson learned: never sign a running back to big money. Look around the league; the consistently great teams never do such a thing for several reasons.
It never helps the salary-cap situation (running back is a value-driven position) and guys at that position tend to age very quickly. By the time they turn 26, there’s a good chance most of them are already exiting their prime years.
What the Jets can get back for Bell is another conversation, but in the end, it won’t be much. Very few franchises are aching for an aging back with a high salary—a guy that’s most likely to be cut at the end of the season anyway.
