Just over two months since the New York Jets signed Le’Veon Bell to a monster contract, it feels like the relationship between the veteran running back and his new team is rocky.
It’s not because he’s absent from OTAs. That’s pretty standard. But when head coach Adam Gase took the podium on Thursday for the first time since GM Mike Maccagnan was fired, the man who’s also the interim general manager faced all kinds of questions surrounding reports that Gase didn’t want to sign Bell.
His answers didn’t exactly inspire confidence.
He did deny that the team would trade Bell after signing him to deal that guaranteed him $27 million. But check this out what else he said, via NorthJersey.com:
“Discussions are had and whether or not we disagreed on anything, if it was financially, that’s a completely different story than the person and the player,” Gase said. ” And that’s where a lot of this gets misconstrued.” …
“The contract was what it was,” Gase said. “Everybody can criticize contracts all you want, but he’s here, I’m excited that he’s here. I think our players are excited that he’s here. I know our coaches are. … I’m excited to get him in the offense.”
In other words: Gase won’t just go into coachspeak to say he’s excited to have Bell and he’s not going to talk about what the Jets are paying him. Instead, it seems like he’s hinting he’s not happy with what New York gave Bell, which isn’t a great way to start off a relationship with a recently-signed star.
And this is happening because the Jets inexplicably fired their GM before the start of OTAs and handed the (temporary) reigns to Gase, who has already made some moves like trading Darron Lee and cutting tight end Jordan Leggett. Maybe he doesn’t know how to address these rumors swirling around his discontent with the Bell contract because he’s never had to address those kinds of questions as an NFL coach.
This is not what the Jets need with their arrow pointing up in their rebuild. The franchise can’t get out of its own way, and that’s never a good thing for a team known for getting in its own way.
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