The Le'Veon Bell Signing

October 16, 2020
Football
Rohin Palsule and Brandon Xu

The recently released Le’Veon Bell didn’t take long to find a home. Just 2 days after being released by the New York Jets, Bell signed a 1-year deal to finish the season with the Kansas City Chiefs.

Le’Veon Bell as a Player

Le’Veon Bell is one of the most unique running backs the NFL has ever seen. Typically, running backs are the elusive/pass-catch type (ex. Austin Ekeler), or they are the power backs who run in between the tackles (ex. Derrick Henry), but Bell doesn’t really fit into either category. The thing that stands out the most about Bell is his vision and patience. He’s very good at waiting for his blocks to set up, sometimes even running still to wait for the blockers ahead to set up. When Bell sees a hole, his acceleration is unrivaled and he’s one of the fastest backs in the league once he reaches his top speed. He’s also a very good receiver from the backfield. When he’s healthy, he averages around 600 yards receiving per season with a good amount of those yards coming from screen plays, where Bell can utilize both his patience and natural pass-catching abilities.

Before we dive into his years with the Jets, let’s remember how dominant he was with the Steelers. In 2014, his sophomore season, he was second in the NFL in rushing behind Demarco Murray and led all RBs in receiving yards. In 2016, despite only playing in 12 games, he finished 3rd in yards from scrimmage with 1884 yards. In 2017, he led the league in rushing. With the Steelers, Le’Veon Bell was one of the best backs in the NFL, if not the best.

His tenure with the Jets has been a completely different story. After sitting out the 2018 season to hold out for a better contract, he signed with the Jets and finished his first season with 1250 yards from scrimmage. On paper, that seems very impressive, but he averaged a measly 3.2 yards per carry. Football Outsiders ranked all 45 running backs with at least 100 carries, and Le’Veon Bell ranked 43rd. Although the Jets O-Line ranked dead last in run blocking last year, Bell didn’t really make it easier for his O-Line to block for him. This year has been more of the same for Bell. He ranked towards the bottom of all NFL RBs and he has just 3 catches.

It’s fair to assume that Bell is not the same player that he was in 2016, but he’s probably better than what he showed with the Jets. Adam Gase is infamous for getting the worst out of his players, and a rejuvenated Bell on the Chiefs would place him on a long list of former Gase castoffs that have made a name for themselves on a new team.

How will he fit with the Chiefs?

It’s fair to say that Chiefs head coach Andy Reid has coached many tremendous running backs into superstars. Players such as LeSean McCoy, Brian Westbrook, Jamal Charles, and Kareem Hunt have thrived in the Chiefs offense, and with a quarterback like Patrick Mahomes elevating this dynamic offense, the running game is bound to be good.

As of now, the Chiefs run gun is in the middle of the pack, ranking 13th in the league, which is solid considering how electric their passing game is. The current starting running back is rookie Clyde Edwards-Helaire who is having a great rookie year, rushing for 344 yards on just 81 attempts, averaging 4.2 yards per carry. With a young running back like Edwards-Helaire having this type of season, Andy Reid will definitely implement him into their offense even with Bell, which will create a deadly two man backfield.

But what really makes this offense borderline unstoppable now is the increase in passing options for Patrick Mahomes in the backfield. We have seen Andy Reid already use running backs heavily in his passing attack with Edwards-Helaire on track to end the season with over 500 passing yards and average 9.9 yards per reception. Bell as aforementioned has proven to be an elite pass catcher as well, adding another weapon to this deadly pass offense.

Defenses are going to have trouble identifying any hole or tendency in the Chiefs offense simply due to the dynamic nature of Reid and OC Eric Bieniemy. Chiefs receivers Tyreek Hill and Mecole Hardman can not only beat almost any cornerback on deep balls but also run jet sweeps to beat defenses on the ground while half backs Bell and Edwards-Helaire can run through your D-line and catch screens and checkdowns for major yardage in the air. It seemed very difficult to improve this Chiefs offense, but they definitely did with the signing of Le'Veon Bell.

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