Gang gives up on Le’Veon deal
INDIANAPOLIS — The grounds for divorce will ultimately be irreconcilable differences, but there’s no breakup on the horizon. The partners are stuck with each other for 11 more months, so they might as well try to make the most of it.
The Jets have officially given up on trading Le’Veon Bell, whose relatively astronomical guaranteed money for the coming season ($13.5 million) made it impossible to move him. So, general manager Joe Douglas shut the door Tuesday with a one-word response about whether he’ll initiate further trade discussions involving the Pro Bowl running back: “No.”
“There hasn’t been talk as far as him going anywhere,” Douglas said at the NFL Scouting Combine. “We’re excited about Le’Veon. Le’Veon’s been a great teammate. I can’t tell you how great he’s been. I had a great conversation with him at the end of the season exit meeting. I know he’s been working hard down in Miami…. I know he’s excited to get back. And we’re excited to have him.”
Adam Gase and Bell have become Gang Green’s odd couple, a marriage that should have been made in heaven, but precipitously reached the depths of hell in just one season.
Gase managed to sap Bell of his superpowers. A substandard offensive line coupled with poor deployment resulted in the most forgettable season of Bell’s career. It was the ultimate lose-lose relationship. Bell was ineffective. Gase’s offense struggled.
“He’s not a complainer,” Gase said Tuesday. “He does his job. He does everything he can to help us win. We’ve had a few text exchanges since the end of the season just checking in on each other. He’s been great for us. He’s done everything I’ve asked him to do. He tries to do things the right way. What everyone else says, I think we’re both to the point where we really don’t care. As long as our relationship is good, we’re good.”
Hopefully that’s not more lip service. It’s theoretically the right approach. Neither Gase nor Bell should care about past issues (real or imaginary). What’s the point?
They’re stuck with each other for one more season before Bell’s guaranteed money runs out. Then, they’ll part ways. In the meantime, it makes most sense for each of them to use the other to get what they both want. That’s the best way to find success in 2020.
The first step centers on getting a better understanding of why Bell was a gamechanging force in Pittsburgh for all those years. I know, I know. Gase should have already done this the moment Bell agreed to his blockbuster deal a year ago. He obviously didn’t do that, but there’s no sense retracing his past errors. They’re obvious.
Right now, here’s what matters: How can Gase pull the special elements from this special player to boost the league’s worstranked offense from a year ago?
Gase is lucky, whether or not he realizes it. He has a great resource to improve his offense and help his coveted young quarterback.
Bell might never be able to jump into the hot tub time machine and replicate the magic from his younger days, but he is still an effective enough player to help himself and his teammates in 2020. It’ll be incumbent upon Gase to find the right formula to make sure Bell, who rushed for 789 yards on a career-low 3.2 yards per carry in 2019, becomes more than a complementary piece.
“It’s just really going to be about doing the right things schematically, depending on what direction we go with the run game,” Gase said. “Just making sure we get him the right reps, reps with the right guys, making sure we’re all on the same page.”
“The passing game is always going to be about what’s the best way to use him,” Gase continued. “We’re always going to keep exploring that, whether it’s keep going back and look at some older stuff, talking to him, seeing some of the stuff he did really well for us this year, just keep exploring that.”
Gase said he hasn’t broached the topic of Bell’s participation in the voluntary offseason program yet. He privately wasn’t thrilled with Bell’s decision to work out in Florida rather than the team facility last year.
Although fair points can be made for Bell training on his own or working in close proximity to Gase this spring, the bottom line is that both parties must truly feel comfortable with the arrangement. Private passive-aggressive back-channel whining is counterproductive. So is floating out nonsense about how alleged weight gain sapped the player of his explosiveness as the season wore on. Douglas, by the way, admitted that he didn’t believe that fairy tale.
“That Baltimore game was as productive a game as he had all year,” Douglas said. “And that was in December. I guess I didn’t see those things that other people might have talked about.”
The bottom line is that the 2019 bottom line was unacceptable for everyone.
“I wouldn’t say his play declined,” Douglas said. “His numbers probably aren’t where he would want them to be. I think we need to do a better job of opening holes for him. We need to put him in good position to be as productive as he was in Pittsburgh.”
Can Gase bring out the good football that still resides inside Bell?
It could be a win-win situation.