Le’Veon Bell’s first season with the New York Jets… wasn’t great. At all.
The former Pittsburgh Steeler, who sat out all of last season while waiting for a big payday, rushed for only 789 yards and three touchdowns and never made the type of impact that the Jets were hoping to see when they signed him to a 4-year, $52 million deal last offseason.
Bell closed out the season by getting just four touches in the second half of the Jets win over the Bills in Buffalo.
There’s been speculation that the Jets might try to trade him during the offseason and earlier this year there was a report that Gase never wanted the Jets to sign him.
The Jets would be absolutely crazy to keep Gase and lose Bell, but these are the Jets we are talking about.
Gase was asked about Bell on Monday and didn’t exactly offer any support to bringing him back next year:
"He's under contract for three more years … You can ask Joe (Douglas) tomorrow."
Jets HC Adam Gase on if he wants Le'Veon Bell to return in 2020.
(via @snyjets)pic.twitter.com/DBPFWyDZmJ
— CBS Sports HQ (@CBSSportsHQ) December 30, 2019
To which Bell responded with a classic gif from ‘The Office”:
https://t.co/csolpvucXt pic.twitter.com/RFNcgQLjq5
— Le'Veon Bell (@LeVeonBell) December 30, 2019
So yeah, good times with the Jets.
Twitter, by the way, seems to be Team Bell on this one, and rightfully so:
.@LeVeonBell has been a model teammate. Team-first all season.
Then he gets this pathetic answer from his head coach.
So incredibly weak by Adam Gase. https://t.co/QXsmE25alQ
— Manish Mehta (@MMehtaNYDN) December 30, 2019
Under Adam Gase, players like DeVante Parker, Mike Gesicki, etc have struggle to reach their full potential and have thrived under new coaches this season.
Meanwhile, an All-Pro player like Le'Veon Bell has had career low production this season.
— Dov Kleiman (@NFL_DovKleiman) December 30, 2019
With the way that Adam Gase answered questions about Leveon Bell today, the real question should be, why would Bell want to come back next season? #Jets
— Michael Hauff (@TheFFRealist) December 30, 2019
Imagine choosing Adam Gase over FUTURE HALL OF FAMER LEVEON BELL @nyjets @woodyjohnson4
— Jake Cahill (@grantooo0) December 30, 2019
Adam Gase didn’t quite give his “franchise RB” a glowing sense of confidence.
Smh. Get Bell to Houston or KC by any means necessary!
— Skoob 🇵🇦🇯🇲 (@TheKidSkoob) December 30, 2019
[jwplayer CXxGDewr-q2aasYxh]