New York Jets: 5 reasons why Le’Veon Bell is an awesome signing

2. Bell has shown he can produce with the best of them

Since joining the NFL in 2013, Le’Veon Bell has produced at least 1,200 yards from scrimmage and eight touchdowns from scrimmage in seasons where he’s played at least 12 games. In Bell’s most recent season, 2017, he racked up a league-high 406 touches for the Pittsburgh Steelers, churning out 1,946 yards from scrimmage and 11 touchdowns in the process.

Overall, Bell is 12th among active players in career rushing yards despite only being 27 with a full season of missed production thanks to his admirable holdout, 19th among active players in yards from scrimmage, and ninth in NFL history with an average of 86.1 rushing yards per game.

For the New York Jets, the key word is “consistency,” and there isn’t a more reliable running back in all three phases of the game than Bell, whose resume over the past several years speaks for itself. He is a player capable of racking up 2,200 yards from scrimmage – as he did in his breakout 2014 campaign as a First-Team All-Pro selection – and Bell once somehow averaged 4.9 yards per carry and 105.7 rushing yards per game in the same season back in 2016.

All of those numbers blow the 2018 Jets out of the water, considering Crowell’s 837 yards from scrimmage led the team. That not-so-nice mark placed him 69th in the league, whereas Bell’s 1,946 yards from scrimmage in his last full season would have placed him in fourth. That difference in over 1,000 yards of production is worth the approximately $13 million per year that Bell will make, especially considering where the Jets offense ranked last season.