Content available exclusively for subscribers
There was a report that the . . .
“The Jets felt [Le’Veon bell] gained weight and lost explosiveness as the season went on.”
That came from ESPN’s Rich Cimini.
I’m not buying that.
Let me make this clear, I’m not questioning the reporter’s reporting, just the theory somebody in the building gave him.
I have no idea who that person was, but there was a person who talked to reporters a lot during practice. I have no idea if it was that guy.
First of all, being in the locker room all season, the one thing that often occurred to me looking at Bell, was how lean he looked at 6-1, 225. He carries it really well, almost looks a little slender.
There was no point during the season where I looked at him and felt that he looked chunky.
And there is one important point that might shoot a hole in the theory that he lost explosiveness, and that has to do with his running style.
He so often delayed before hitting a hole – sometimes too long – and the hole would close. It’s hard to discern how explosive he is, when he doesn’t take the handoff. and just shoot into a hole, like he was shot out of cannon. His running style, featuring hitting the pause button before heading up field, makes it tough to determine his explosiveness because he generally wasn’t exploding into holes. I hope that made sense. Basically what I’m saying is how can you tell if a runner is explosive, when his running style almost always precluded him from exploding into holes quickly?
These repeated attacks on Bell, from Jets sources, are bad for the runner’s relationship with the organization, a bad optic, and not good for their football culture.
This stuff should be kept in house.
It all started, when following the firing of Mike Maccagnan, Ian Rapoport announced that Gase believed the Jets overpaid Bell.
That report was awful for the Jets. While somebody from Gase’s camp, perhaps from CAA, was trying to give the reporter an example of what caused the rift between the coach and former GM, this also hurt the Jets a great deal.
How does it help an organization, for a star players to know his boss feels the team overpaid him, especially before he’s taken the field for one game with that team? Rapoport’s announcement was SO damaging to the Bell-Gase relationship. You heard so much about how Kansas City Chiefs players wanted to win the Super Bowl for “Big Red” – Andy Reid. They love the man, would run through a brick all for him.
Is a player going to run through a brick wall for a coach who questioned his salary before he played one game for that coach?
And now you have somebody from the organization questioning Bell’s conditioning last year?
Loose lips, do you know what.
People need to pipe down with the leaks criticizing Bell. That doesn’t happen in good football cultures, something the Jets are looking to build.
IMO, Bell didn’t lose explosiveness due to weight.
He either had bad blocking from a patchwork offensive line, or when they did open big holes, he often delayed going through them, thanks to a super-patient running style, sometimes too patient.
February 18, 2020
Premium will return by 9:30 pm on Wednesday.