The New York Jets are trading disgruntled running back Le’Veon Bell.
Barring something unforeseen happening, the deal will happen by Nov. 3 or sooner.
“The Daily News has learned that Gang Green is trying to trade the perennial Pro Bowl running back amid this nightmarish season,” Manish Mehta reported on Tuesday.
“Sources told the News that Gang Green is indeed shopping Bell with the hope of trading him sooner rather than later. The trade deadline is at the end of the month.”
Jets head coach Adam Gase addressed Bell’s frustrations with the team during a Monday press conference.
“I know he’s frustrated that we haven’t won,” he said.
“It wasn’t necessarily the plan of not targeting him in the past game, it just kind of ended up being that way with how they were they were playing us.
“So that’s what it is, I mean, just try to find ways to move the football that’s all we’re trying to do, and it doesn’t always go exactly as planned.”
Not ideal. https://t.co/VEQ6PZVKn7
— Game 7 (@game7__) October 13, 2020
Bell’s stint in New York has been an unmitigated disaster up to this point. He averaged a career-low 3.2 yards per carry and just 1,250 yards from scrimmage last season, which is not quite what the Jets had in mind when they signed him to a four-year, $52.5 million deal.
This season, his guaranteed base salary is $8.5 million.
So who will the Jets ultimately trade Bell to? There are three real legitimate suitors.
The first is the Chicago Bears. Although Nick Foles and Co. have gotten off to a hot 4-1 start, offensively this team still has some very real issues.
Tarik Cohen is out for the year, and as a group the Bears rank at the bottom of the league in total offensive yards per game, total yards, total rushing yards and total rushing yards per game. Bell would address this immediately.
If not Chicago, the Arizona Cardinals also make a ton of sense. Quarterback Kyler Murray needs additional offensive support, and Bell would be able to provide that for him much in the same way wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins has.
Obviously the Cardinals would have to give up some draft capital to make this transaction work, but the organization already committed to that path with the Hopkins trade anyway.
The A.J. Green Era in Cincinnati is over. https://t.co/2aRN2C0o1h
— Game 7 (@game7__) October 12, 2020
Finally, don’t sleep on the New England Patriots. Head coach Bill Belichick loves taking disgruntled players that don’t work in their current settings and then “fixing them” in his system. Sometimes it works out, other times it doesn’t – but he is never afraid to try.
Plus, quarterback Cam Newton needs help. Having N’Keal Harry as one of your three best offensive weapons is not a recipe for Super Bowl success.
What a year. https://t.co/aXauCkoKLW
— Game 7 (@game7__) October 10, 2020
The lone issue with a potential Patriots-Jets trade is that New York obviously wouldn’t want to help a divisional rival, but the front office may think that Bell is broken beyond all hope now. If that is the case, then New England adding him would be subtraction by addition, which is a net win for the Jets.
It remains to be seen where Bell will ultimately be playing come Sunday, Nov. 8, but it definitely will not be in New York.
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Jennifer Withers Hoey is a former Business Development Manager who transitioned to writing about sports. With valuable connections all over the West Coast, she has used those contacts to break some of the most interesting stories pertaining to the Portland Trail Blazers, Oregon Ducks, LA Lakers, LA Clippers, Seattle Supersonics (RIP), and more.
