At this point, Le’Veon Bell’s market is the New York Jets.
Well, after all of that high demand at the beginning of the 2019 NFL Free Agency period, it looks like Le’Veon Bell is down to just one suitor – the New York Jets. On Monday, when the market opened up for the NFL Legal Tampering period, Bell had about 5-to-8 interested teams.
As of Tuesday afternoon, he had two teams in an apparent bidding war. They just so happened to be the Baltimore Ravens and the New York Jets. Once another top running back hit the market though, the Ravens shifted their attention elsewhere. And according to Sports Illustrated’s Mike Silver, the Ravens are ‘close’ to a deal with Mark Ingram, not Bell.
What does this mean for Bell?
I'm told the Ingram deal to the Ravens is 'close'
— Michael Silver (@MikeSilver) March 12, 2019
At this point, it might be Jets or bust. If bust, then Bell will have to consider lowering his demands. We are all well aware that Bell wants to be the highest paid running back in the league with tons of guaranteed money, but at this point, teams have just given up. If the Oakland Raiders didn’t spend big elsewhere, he would’ve probably joined Antonio Brown out on the West Coast already, but Oakland had to drop out of the race.
Do the Jets actually want Bell? That’s been the biggest mystery this entire time. Yes, Bell could help the Jets a lot on offense and could take a ton of pressure off of their young quarterback, Sam Darnold. But then again, they don’t want to spend so much on a running back that could potentially be a problem. Plus, Bell hasn’t even played football since 2017.
Apparently, the Jets have a deadline set in place for Bell. There’s no report on the date and timing, but if Bell isn’t ready to agree to the proposed deal, then the Jets are going to start looking elsewhere for backfield help. Maybe Bell and his reps are making one final push for last minute offers, but at this point, it sounds like he’s dealing with a New York or bust situation.
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