Fantasy Football: 3 reasons to avoid Le’Veon Bell in 2019

2. Inferior Offense

One of those risk factors is that Le’Veon Bell no longer plays for the Pittsburgh Steelers. We will compare the Steelers offense to the Jets offense from a few angles to provide a feel for why that move was a significant step down.

First, comparing the overall offensive numbers from 2018 (during which the Steelers did not even have Bell) is staggering. The Steelers finished fourth in the league with 6,453 total yards. The Jets finished 29th in the league with 4,787 yards. That is over 100 fewer yards per game.

One could make a cogent argument for why the Jets will be better in 2019. Jets quarterback Sam Darnold will have another year under his belt, and new head coach Adam Gase is bringing a new offense to town. Certainly the Jets could improve. But the fact remains that they have been comparably poor on offense to the Steelers for as long as most of us can remember. Darnold may improve, but that improvement will be incremental. And let’s just say that Gase did not set the league on fire when he brought his offense to Miami.

Second, Bell will be working with a young quarterback still learning how to play the position in the NFL. The only other quarterback he has ever played with is Ben Roethlisberger, who has certainly mastered the position and has won two Super Bowls. That makes a huge difference in the efficiency of a running back. Good quarterbacks, by making the correct read on a given play or by throwing an accurate ball in traffic, absolutely make a positive impact on the statistics of the skill players around them. Bell will likely be frustrated by the potential chunk plays Darnold leaves on the field.

Third, the other skill position players on the Jets are far inferior to who Bell had around him in Pittsburgh. Defenses had to account for Antonio Brown on every play, and they often left a safety over the top to help the cornerback covering him. That alone left the box much more open for Bell, giving him more room to work with and more time to patiently allow his runs to develop. In New York, defenses will be keyed on him, and he will certainly see many stacked boxes.

Finally, the overall offensive scheme, offensive line and coaching on the Steelers is superior to what Bell will experience as a member of the Jets. Jets fans have been frustrated for years at the ineptitude of the offense, and that is certainly not going to change overnight with the arrival of Bell and Gase.

An inferior offense means fewer long drives, fewer first downs, fewer yards and fewer touchdowns. Naturally, Bell also will have fewer of all of those things. This severely limits the potential for him to finish within even the top 10 fantasy running backs, meaning he would not be a value at his current draft position.