Let’s not mince words: Le’Veon Bell had a terrible season in 2019.
He suffered career lows in almost every statistical category in his first season with the Jets after he took a year off of football and rarely looked like the superstar running back he was in his five seasons with the Steelers. Part of his abysmal season can be blamed on the Jets’ horrendous roster – particularly its porous offensive line – as well as Adam Gase’s utilization of the multi-faceted back.
Bell should have been the featured player of the Jets offense after signing a lucrative four-year, $52.5 million contract last offseason with $27 million in guaranteed money. Instead, he saw a decrease in touches, yards and touchdowns. The Jets will have a big decision this offseason on what to do with Bell given his age (he’ll turn 28 in February), contract and obvious dip in production two years after he touched the ball 406 times and scored 11 touchdowns for the Steelers. General manager Joe Douglas didn’t sign Bell, Gase reportedly never wanted him, and the offense performed similarly when he missed one game this season. All signs point to Bell sticking around for at least another season, but his stats are worrisome for a player who was at one point the most dynamic player in the league.
Here are six stats that show how much Bell struggled in first season in New York.
Fewest scrimmage yards since 2013
Bell touted himself as a dual-threat running back throughout his year-long hiatus in 2018. His 1,259 yards from scrimmage were his fewest in a season he played at least 12 games since his rookie year when he finished with 1,250 scrimmage yards.
In his three best seasons in Pittsburgh, Bell averaged over 2,000 scrimmage yards and was a staple of the Steelers offense. Bell missed 10 games of the 2015 season with suspensions and injuries, but still averaged more yards from scrimmage per game (115.3) than he did in 2019 (83.9). The Jets didn’t feature Bell nearly as much as they should have, and their roster didn’t give him the best chances to flex is ability.
Only four touchdowns in 2019
Bell came to the Jets with 42 career touchdowns – 35 rushing and seven receiving – but only mustered four total scores this past season (three rushing and one receiving). His three rushing touchdowns matched his season-low set in 2015 – the same season he only played six games. Bell averaged 7.25 rushing touchdowns and 9.75 total touchdowns every other year in Pittsburgh.
Nine quarterbacks scored more rushing touchdowns than Bell in 2019, and backups like Malcolm Brown, Chase Edmonds, Qadree Ollison, Jeff Wilson and Boston Scott also scored more than Bell did.
Bell targeted less in the passing game
A lot of this falls on Gase’s game planning, but Bell wasn’t targeted nearly as often in the passing game as he was in Pittsburgh. Bell only saw 78 targets in 2019, which was his fewest since his rookie season (without counting his injured year).
He averaged 101 targets in the three other seasons in Pittsburgh and averaged 81 catches for 708 yards with those targets. In New York, Bell finished with 66 receptions for 461 yards. His targets also dipped dramatically as the season progressed. After averaging eight targets per game between Weeks 1-5, Bell averaged only 3.8 the rest of the season.
Couldn’t move the chains
The Jets offense couldn’t stay on the field in 2019, and Bell wasn’t helping the problem. He converted 56 first downs for the Jets between rushing and receiving after averaging 97.25 total first downs per season with Pittsburgh during his non-injured years.
First downs are crucial to any team’s offensive success, and the Jets simply couldn’t get it down this season. Bell can’t be blamed for it though, considering his total was a team-high for the Jets. We’ll attribute this stat almost exclusively to the Jets’ poor roster.
Fewest yards per touch
It didn’t matter if the Jets handed the ball off to Bell or threw it to him; Bell couldn’t turn his touches into big gains. He had a long of only 19 yards on the season and averaged 4.0 yards per touch with the Jets – his lowest average ever – and he averaged at least five yards per touch during his time in Pittsburgh.
Bell was even less effective on the ground, averaging only 3.2 yards per attempt – also a career-low. That put him second-to-last among qualified running backs, ahead of only Peyton Barber of the Buccanneers, who averaged 3.1 yards per carry.
Before he joined the Jets, Bell’s career-low was 3.5 yards per carry during his rookie season, and he averaged at least 4.0 yards per attempt every year after 2013. This might be Bell’s biggest blunder in the 2019 season, especially since his style is so conducive to big runs.
Second-lowest DYAR and DVOA
Football Outsiders’ two running back metrics DYAR (Defense-adjusted Yards Above Replacement) and DVOA (Defense-adjusted Value Over Average) – calculate a running back’s performance and value compared to the replacement level. DYAR represents the rushers’ total value, while DVOA represents his value per play. Bell ranked 43rd in both metrics, once again behind only Barber.
This means that Bell was one of the least-valuable running backs in the league both overall and on a play-by-play perspective, at least by analytics standards. Is this a truthful assessment of Bell as a player? Probably not. But it’s at least a solid representation of his usage in New York, and a potential reason to trade him away to lessen his burden on the salary cap.
