The Jets placed RB Le’Veon Bell (hamstring), WR Denzel Mims (hamstrings) and Blake Cashman (groin) on injured reserve, the team announced Tuesday. All three players will be eligible to return in three weeks.
Mims was inactive Week 1 after suffering an injury to his (at the time) good hamstring during practice last week. Cashman exited Sunday’s game early in the first quarter after suffering an injury to his groin.
Bell’s hamstrings have been an issue since training camp. He disputed Adam Gase on Twitter, saying there was “nothing wrong with his hamstrings” after Gase elected to pull his running back from a scrimmage. Bell later backtracked his comments, but they came back to bite him this past weekend.
Bell slipped and injured himself going out for a pass Sunday. Gase was mad at himself for second-guessing the extent of Bell’s injury and allowing him to return to the game, even after the Jets running back pulled up lame and was clearly grabbing his hamstring.
Bell played out the rest of the first-half and saw snaps in the second, but the Jets saw enough and eventually pulled him in favor of Frank Gore and Josh Adams.
With Gore and Adams the Jets’ only healthy running backs, the team signed Kalen Ballage.
The Ballage singing comes just a couple of weeks after the former Miami Dolphins running back was traded to the Jets for a conditional 2021 seventh-round draft pick. He failed his physical, though, thus nixing the trade.
New York is signing Ballage to its active roster in wake of injuries to both Bell and La’Mical Perine, who has been dealing with an ankle injury. His timetable for return is still unknown.
With Bell down for at least three weeks, Gore will assume the starting role. New York elevated Adams from its practice squad for Week 1 but returned him Monday. It’s likely that Gore, Ballage and Adams will be the Jets’ backfield when they host the 49ers this weekend.
With New York in desperate need of a running back that it can immediately insert into the mix, Ballage’s prior knowledge of Gase’s offense made him the perfect candidate. The Jets just have to hope his hamstring is now healthy while Bell rehabs his.