Le’Veon Bell: “Maybe People Forgot About Me”

Le’Veon Bell is anxious to get back on the field. One of the best running backs in the NFL, if not the best, declared himself ready for the new challenges wearing the New York Jets jersey.

“I hope everybody’s ready,” Bell stated at the press conference.

Looking at his current shape, it seems that Bell is a bit slower than usual, but that is all the consequence of his absence from the game. He didn’t have a single contest in 17 months, which is a massive gap he has to fill. The No.26 in Jets does not doubt that as time goes by, he will once again the guy who tores apart rivals’ defenses.

“Maybe people forget a little bit just because they haven’t seen it in a long time,” the player said adding that he will remind them how good he is as soon as the first game starts. “It’s normal. That’s what humans do. But I feel like once I go out here, I play, first game coming up, people will be reminded.”

In his last season with the Steelers, Bell recorded 1,291 rushing yards and had 9 TDs. He also added 655 yards through the air, and had 2 TDs.

After the loss against the Jacksonville Jaguars in the Divisional round, and the bad season ending with the Steelers, he decided to leave Pittsburgh for various reasons. Among them was a poor relationship with Ben Roethlisberger, which turned out to be the trigger for Antonio Brown’s departure to Oakland Raiders also.

For Bell, yesterday’s training session was pure joy, as he once again felt good an happy. Even though he didn’t saw much action, carrying the football just three times, Jets’ RB was delighted to be a part of a team after a long time.

“The fact I had that whole year off and came out here and played football again, it felt so good.”

The reporters used this chance to ask the superstar several very interesting question, some relating to his condition, health, mindset. Amongst many, there was one which considered his relationship with coach Adam Gase.

Coach Gase was one of the biggest opponents for Bell’s arrival among the Jets. He didn’t want to hide that, and many wanted to know how these two guys work together now. For Bell, that is all a part of business, and he stressed out that even if everything is true regarding Gase’s previous attitude, that doesn’t mean that Jets’ coach doubts in his quality.

“This is a business,” said Bell. “Even if the report was true, obviously he doesn’t feel like I’m not a great player.”

"It feels like I'm a new kid at school."@LeVeonBell joins @KimJonesSports to talk about his first practice with the @nyjets 👇

📺: Inside Minicamp LIVE pic.twitter.com/zZDJSmzOG4

— NFL Network (@nflnetwork) June 4, 2019

Gase thought that Bell’s salary would be too high and that the franchise could have used that to land more players. The strong RB signed a four-year deal worth $52 million, and that is the second-highest yearly income for one running back. The top one is Todd Gurley’s.

The players also said that he and Gase have regular contacts, and are texting messages to one another every day. Jets’ coach will slowly prepare Bell for the upcoming challenges and won’t overload him during the early stages of the preseason.

These two are working out strategies which could make Bell even more productive than in Pittsburgh, and on the other hand, could help the Jets to make some notable results during the next campaign.

They were last in the AFC East with 4 wins and 12 losses, and with Bell onboard, they have high expectations for the 2019 season. Sam Darnold is no longer a rookie, and with the addition of a few more players, we could see the Jets in a totally different position. Some are saying even in the playoffs.

Their first preseason game is against the New York Giants on 9th of August, and the first season contest will be against the Bills on 8th of September.