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I thought this comment aimed at the Jets from a fan was thought-provoking . . .
The Jets tweeted a photo of Le’Veon Bell with the caption, “It’s always showtime when Le’Veon Bell is around.”
I will break this down in a minute, but I want to bring up a fan comment about this tweet that I found debate-worthy.
“Let’s share a photo of a player the coach and GM don’t want around,” tweeted Rich Adams.
Really interesting comment.
Is it true that Adam Gase and Joe Douglas don’t want Bell around?
I think most close observers of the Jets would argue that this is probably the case with Gase, but with Douglas, it’s not as clear.
Remember, right after Mike Maccagnan was fired, NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport announced that one bone of contention between the former GM and Gase was the contract the Jets gave to Bell. Rapoport announced that Gase believed Maccagnan overpaid for Bell.
And then, in Gase’s season-ending presser, you had this exchange between Manish Mehta and Gase:
“We value Le’Veon,” Douglas said. “We value the competitor. We value the teammate. We’re excited [for him] being in our program another year, going through our offseason again.”
I have quoted that last sentence quite a bit over the last few months. The fact that Douglas said they look forward to Bell “going through our offseason again” was quite an interesting quote.
Why is it interesting? Because he didn’t go through it last year, aside from the three-day mandatory camp. He missed everything else in the off-season.
So when they tweeted, “It’s always showtime when Le’Veon Bell is around,” the first thing that went through my mind was, “Will he be ‘around’ for the off-season program?”
Because to me, I think there is a good chance they move on if he blows off the off-season program this year. Douglas is obsessed with building a strong culture, and having your bell cow back miss the off-season his first two years, would likely be the end of the road for Bell. But they could never admit that publicly because it’s voluntary, but it wouldn’t prevent them for trading him for that reason.
But the fan makes an interesting point. Why are they constantly promoting a player on social media that the GM/coach might want to move on from? Perhaps the football side and marketing side really don’t discuss this stuff – they just stay in their own lanes.
However, my sense on this whole thing is that if Bell goes to the off-season, and works hard with the teammates, including his young QB, he’s a virtual lock to the return to the team in 2020. If he blows it off, that might be a different story.
February 13, 2020
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