Jets Sign Le’Veon Bell

The Jets were off to such a nice offseason. CJ Mosley, Jamison Crowder, and Kelechi Osemele made him have faith in the Jets. Now the Jets are really swinging for the fences. New York has signed Le’Veon Bell to a contract.

Adam Schefter of ESPN was the first to report the news:

Former Steelers’ RB Le’Veon Bell plans to sign with…the New York Jets, a league source tells ESPN

— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) March 13, 2019

Schefter later added that the two parties have agreed to a 4-year contract worth $52.5 million. Bell, 27, sat out the entire 2018 season in hopes of landing a big money deal. Bell may not have broke the running back market open but he sure as shit got his money. Bell’s contract will make him the 2nd highest paid running back just behind Todd Gurley. His average annual value of $13.125 million beats out David Johnson by a smidge. The funniest part of this deal is Bell will make less money per year than the franchise tag number ($14.5 million) that he refused a year ago

This deal could work out for the Jets but I’m VERY skeptical. Bell sat out the entire season and packed on weight. Running backs are a lot like cars. They are meant to be run and when they aren’t, they often times don’t get started so quickly as they used to. There’s no way in hell I would agree to give Bell this type of money unless he hit certain weight clauses. If you have been paying attention to the way the Steelers develop running backs, Bell lost a ton of weight to become successful with Pittsburgh. That better be the case in New York.

He also has a ton of tread on those tires. In five playing seasons, Bell has carried the ball 1,229 times and caught the ball 312 times. Bell’s yard per carry average decreased from 4.9 in 2016 to 4.0 in 2017. James Conner for example, averaged 4.5 for the Steelers in 2018 and made pennies.

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The thing the Jets can smile about is that they have their quarterback and all they had to do is pay Bell $20 million more than what the Giants are paying Saquon Barkley and they are stuck with Eli Manning. I really hope Le’Veon Bell brings it because I’m rooting for the Jets. I’m sure part of the Jets thought process here had to do with the running back draft class. It’s a horrible group. Way down compared to years in the past. From that point of view, I get why the Jets went the extra mile to land Bell.