After handing Le’Veon Bell a huge free agent contract this spring, it looks like the New York Jets have buyers remorse and are trying to ship the star running back out of town before the trade deadline.
The New York Jets started their fire sale yesterday by extracting a pair of draft picks from the New York Giants for underachieving former first round pick Leonard Williams. Robby Anderson is reportedly on the trade block as well, but the Jets could be looking to drop a bomb on the league by shopping Le’Veon Bell as well.
Manish Mehta, the Jets’ beat reporter for the New York Daily News, is reporting that the team is open to moving its big ticket acquisition from the spring if the price is right. Bell is off to one of the worst starts of his career, averaging just 3.2 yards per carry with the Jets, and curiously received just 12 touches in their loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday.
There should be plenty of teams lining up for a shot at Bell, who is one of the best running backs in football, and the Jets should be open to a move if they get an overpay. This move is likely coming at the behest of head coach Adam Gase, who reportedly never wanted Bell in free agency and has a history of getting rid of big personalities if they don’t fit his style.
It is also worth noting that Jets’ GM Joe Douglas didn’t give Bell his big contract, coming in only after the team fired Mike Maccagnan a few weeks after the draft. Douglas clearly has a long term plan he is trying to execute to rebuild a franchise that has gone off the rails in recent years, and a running back is a luxury on a team with a pathetic offensive line that can’t open holes for him.
The bigger issue, though, is that a Bell trade would remove the best offensive weapon from a team that is trying to develop a franchise quarterback in Sam Darnold. The Jets have to be concerned that Darnold is regressing over the course of the season, and taking Bell away from him would make life even more difficult for the second-year quarterback.
Unless another team offers a Herschel Walker-like haul for Bell, this is not a move the Jets should be making since Bell is clearly part of the solution and not the problem. There is no question that Gase would be behind this move, and it would be the latest indication he is running the Jets right into the ground like he did with the Dolphins.