Fansided

Le’Veon Bell must leave Gotham City immediately to be fantasy relevant

By Matthew Catalano

ORCHARD PARK, NY - DECEMBER 29: Le'Veon Bell #26 of the New York Jets runs the ball during the first half against the Buffalo Bills at New Era Field on December 29, 2019 in Orchard Park, New York. (Photo by Timothy T Ludwig/Getty Images)
ORCHARD PARK, NY - DECEMBER 29: Le'Veon Bell #26 of the New York Jets runs the ball during the first half against the Buffalo Bills at New Era Field on December 29, 2019 in Orchard Park, New York. (Photo by Timothy T Ludwig/Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
1 of 3
Next
Le'Veon Bell
Fantasy Football: FLORHAM PARK, NJ – JUNE 05: LeVeon Bell #26 of the New York Jets during day two of mandatory minicamp at the Atlantic Health Jets Training Center on June 5, 2019 in Florham Park, New Jersey. (Photo by Mark Brown/Getty Images) /

From both a football and fantasy standpoint, Le’Veon Bell’s 2019 regular season was absolutely dreadful, to say the least.

While Le’Veon Bell may have displayed the characteristics of a solid teammate with a struggling offense, his performance on the field was hardly recognizable as the guy he was back in Pittsburgh.

As we all know, Bell was not happy with his contract situation during the summer of 2018 with the Pittsburgh Steelers. The front office wanted to slap the franchise tag on him for the second consecutive year in a row that would have been worth around $14 million. When Bell expressed his displeasure about another possible tag, he decided to holdout as a negotiating tactic to get a long-term deal with the team that had drafted him in 2013.

The Steelers weren’t going to take the bait so easily and the two sides failed to reach an agreement which largely involved guaranteed money. As a result, Bell refused to return to the organization and sat out the entire 2018 regular season which cost a lot of fantasy managers their leagues that year.

During the 2019 offseason, Bell found a new suitor who was willing to pay him the money he desired. That team, of course, was the New York Jets. A team starving for an elite talent on offense for quite some time. Not since the days of Curtis Martin had the Jets really had someone as special in their backfield as Bell.

But here’s the problem, the Jets offensive line was one of the worst this year and head coach Adam Gase failed to properly use Bell in his system. Without an offensive line creating holes and a head coach who isn’t very innovative on the offensive-side of the ball like Gase, Bell was doomed from the start.

I had a bad feeling about Bell failing to thrive in this system and I was right unfortunately. The Jets do not have the supporting cast necessary for a player of Bell’s style to be efficient. To be honest, I think most backs no matter how talented they are would have struggled playing for New York in 2019.

Home/Fantasy