Ham’s take
This man knows a thing or two about tackling and covering running backs.
“I ran a 4.6 as a linebacker. I’m covering these running backs because they’re not all that nifty or athletic,” he said of his years from 1971-82. “Today . . . [Bell] is too quick for a linebacker to cover and too physical for a safety to cover in a nickel package.
“That’s where the game has changed and that’s why a guy like Bell, those guys are now the No. 1 option on a lot of these routes.
“It puts tremendous amount of pressure on a linebacker. If you can’t handle that, it’s an easy throw for a quarterback. That’s why a guy like Bell is so valuable to this football team. You can put him out there as a wide receiver. You going to put a linebacker out there or a safety? If you do that, it opens it up. It dictates a lot to a defense when you have a guy like Bell. It changes what defensive coordinators can do when you know a linebacker can’t handle that. It’s a lot of pressure.”
Ham said, “Bell is the best route runner I have seen for a running back in a long time” and added Ezekiel Elliott of the Dallas Cowboys “can’t hold his jock as a receiver or route runner.”
“Running a flare out of the backfield is not running a route. There’s a huge difference. Elliot is a flare guy, not a route runner.
“Bell understands this. He didn’t do that at Michigan State. They didn’t use him like that. Here they found out he was such a good receiver. It’s a big weapon when he’s in there.”
“If you take him out of the offense, it’s going to hurt.”
Bell is a bigger back like Harris, who also was adept at catching passes. Hoak says their styles do not compare.
“Franco was a one-cut guy. He would start somewhere, put his foot on the ground and go back the other way. But he wasn’t a jump around guy the way Le’Veon is. I spoke with Franco in Canton [this summer] and I asked him about it, he said, ‘He’s a little different than I am. He makes more cuts than I do.’
“The other thing, he’s a great runner and I guess he has great speed. I haven’t seen him make the real long runs — 70, 60, 50 yards — and I know the game is changed a lot and you don’t see it much anymore.
“He averages 4.8 [yards per carry] or something like that. He’s amazing.”
Bell actually averages 4.5 yards per carry over his four-year career, but his average has climbed from 3.5 as a rookie, to 4.7 in 2014 to 4.9 in each of the past two seasons.
As with Bettis, Hoak worries about Bell’s injuries and suspensions.
“It would be a concern, yeah, injuries and the other part of it as a concern, I guess. You always feared that. Even with Franco, you feared the injuries, and Jerome also.”
As the Steelers saw a possible trip to the Super Bowl vanish when a groin injury caused them to shut down Bell in the first quarter of the AFC championship game last season, so too did Hoak see injuries to Harris, Rocky Bleier and Frenchy Fuqua derail a possible third consecutive Super Bowl for the Steelers in the 1976 season.
“They crop up on everybody and you don’t know when it’s going to happen. I don’t think he’s injury prone. He carries a big load. He catches the ball so many times, those things will happen.”
So does Bell compare favorably with Franco Harris and Jerome Bettis? Hoak paused before he answered.
“I don’t know. Give him a few more years. Let’s wait a little while. You’re comparing two Hall of Famers, two great players. I’d wait a little bit before I draw that comparison.”