Le’Veon Bell‘s run with the Jets might only last a half season. New York is “amenable” to trading their new running back, sources told Manish Mehta of the New York Daily News. Bell is drawing interest and the Jets are listening, but they aren’t “actively shopping” him, Rich Cimini of ESPN.com clarifies in a tweet. 
Although he’s not sure what kind of compensation the Jets are looking for in return, Mehta notes there are “legitimate buyers” for Bell’s services. If he really does get shipped out in the next few hours, it would end an extremely odd tenure with the team. Shortly after Bell was signed to a massive four-year, $52.5MM deal with $27MM guaranteed, Jets GM Mike Maccagnan was fired. Right after that, word leaked that head coach Adam Gase never wanted Bell in the first place.
The new Jets front office led by Joe Douglas clearly isn’t a fan of committing that much money to a running back, and at 1-6 it certainly makes sense for them to be sellers. As for potential suitors, Mehta floats the Texans, Chiefs and Bills as teams that could potentially be interested. After sitting out the entire 2018 season, Bell has been having a down year. Through seven games he’s averaging just 3.2 yards per carry, and only 5.8 yards per reception.
Of course that’s not really Bell’s fault, as he hasn’t been getting much help from the offensive line or the rest of the offense. All this being said, Mehta does concede that a trade might ultimately be challenging because of Bell’s contract. There are cheaper running backs on the market, and Kenyan Drake was only able to fetch a late-round pick yesterday.
As Albert Breer of SI.com points out in a tweet, Bell is only due a little over $1.3MM more for this year, so it won’t hurt teams too much in 2019. However, he’s owed $13.5MM in 2020, most of which is fully guaranteed. We’ll keep you posted once we hear anything more about Bell.
He got what he wanted, he chose money. Can’t blame him but you had to expect this when you sign.
sure he’d be happy with both getting the cash AND being on a contender.
I guess it makes sense from a value perspective but how are you going to sign big FAs if you could trade them during year 1?
Well this GM didn’t sign that player so I think that would mean this has little affect on them. Plus most top FA’s than sign with that dumpster fire are there for the $$ anyways, so getting paid and then traded to a real time is the best outcome for them anyways…
This makes sense for everybody involved. The Jets could get their compensatory third back (they had the cap space to waste), a contender could get a difference making running back to guarantee a playoff spot and help with the playoffs. Averaged out over two seasons, Bell is a fine package now for a team with legitimate post-season aspirations.
With both Carlos Hyde and Duke Johnson, not sure why the Texans would need Bell. If Lesean McCoy is healthy, not sure why the Chiefs would need him (if not, by all means, yesterday).
Not sure how Frank Gore and T.J. Yelden are playing. Bell would probably be a big upgrade for Buffalo who were used to having a star back (LeSean McCoy) anchoring their offense. I think the Bills will fold in the second half of this season, but adding Bell would give them a better chance of holding it together.
I would like to see him go to the bills and help their offense. Frank gore is actually playing pretty well. And the larger personality with a smaller media area would be interesting to see. But don’t see the bills doing that of course.
Does Bill B. just sit back and laugh at the rest of the AFC East? I sure as heck do!
Hahaha. Beat me to it. Jets a perennial joke. Miami not much better.
Neither is Buffalo. Don’t believe the media attempts at making them relevant…they aren’t. Again.
Man. Putting bell on the chiefs would be scary.
He’s predictably been not great and will never be the Bell of old. There are better option for teams looking for a rb when u factor in cost and acquisition cost
Lol
So it would appear that years 3 and 4 are very affordable
Nope. Just isn’t guaranteed money so there was no reason for them to mention it…
If he signed a four-year, $52.5MM deal with $27MM guaranteed then that means the new team is on the hook only for what remains on the $25.5 over 3 1/2 seasons, no? Isn’t the signing team responsible for all the bonus?
On second thought, maybe the $27M is t bonus, but guaranteed salary.