Former New York Jets running back Le’Veon Bell continues to hammer his ex-head coach
We haven’t heard much from former New York Jets running back Le’Veon Bell in recent years. His main platform has been the boxing ring, as his football days are long over. You’d think that Bell would be content to let his Jets days be bygones.
Instead, out of nowhere, Bell went at his former coach, Adam Gase, in two more X posts.
I still randomly think about how PISSED I used to be in the huddle when Adam Gase would call “21 dive” on 2nd & 10 …
— Le'Veon Bell (@LeVeonBell) June 20, 2024
Bell sneered at Gase’s conservative play-calling on second-and-long. “21 Dive” means a tailback run through the A-gap, likely on the right side. Jets fans shuddered when Gase would call this over and over again.
Bell added that then-quarterback Sam Darnold was similarly chagrined.
Sam would be saying the play out loud just shakin his head in the huddle .. lol
— Le'Veon Bell (@LeVeonBell) June 20, 2024
Bell has taken similar shots at Gase before. Early in 2023, he claimed that Gase had dives in his first 10 play calls. He also claimed that opponents knew the play calls when Gase was head coach. There was a major battle between Gase and Bell while the pair were still with the Jets, too.
Astonishingly, despite how putrid the 2019-20 Jets offenses were under Gase, Darnold, and Bell, the 2023 Jets managed to be even worse. Their -29.9% DVOA in 2023 was the worst in team history, lower than 2019 (-26.2%) or 2020 (-20.4%). However, Bell might not want to broadcast that he averaged 3.2 yards per carry in 2019 and 3.9 with the Jets in 2020. As much as he may blame the coaching, his performance was also far worse than Breece Hall’s in 2023 despite the similarly adverse conditions they faced.
In the dog days before training camp, Bell’s comments will raise some Jets fans’ ire. The main response, though, is to wait for the 2024 team to erase the bitter taste of the last 13 playoff-less years.
