Everyone knows Le'Veon Bell's time with the New York Jets was far from ideal. The real question becomes: How bad did it get?
One look at Bell's statistics with the Jets tells an unpleasant story, and when you dig deeper into the stats, it doesn't get prettier. Bell had a number of career-worsts during the 2019 season with the Jets that didn't get better before his 2020 release. The Chiefs likely signed a player with talent left in the tank, but it wasn't talent that often showed up at MetLife Stadium or anywhere else in Jets green.
This is a look at some of the most brutal numbers Bell put up in his Jets' tenure.
MORE: A timeline of Le'Veon Bell's two doomed seasons with the Jets
Le'Veon Bell's longest Jets run was 19 yards
Bell had one carry of greater than 15 yards with the Jets, a 19-yarder against the Patriots in Week 7 of the 2019 season. In 264 total carries with the Jets, Bell never broke off a run of 20 or more yards. In every season before joining the Jets, Bell had a carry of at least 27 yards.
There are two ways to add insult to injury with this stat. The first: Both Sam Darnold, a quarterback, and Vyncint Smith, a wide receiver, had longer carries than Bell in 2019 (and Darnold, La'Mical Perine and Ty Johnson have longer ones so far in 2020).
And because of course, Bell took his first touch with the Kansas City Chiefs for a 16-yard rush, equaling his 16-plus-yard carry output from the Jets in his K.C. debut.
First touch by Le'Veon Bell with the #Chiefs goes for 16.pic.twitter.com/VCiqy8zBlj
— Dov Kleiman (@NFL_DovKleiman) October 25, 2020
Career-worse yards per carry in 2019
Bell averaged 3.2 yards per carry in 2019 (which probably shouldn't be surprising given his apparent allergy to breaking off long runs). That was the worst of his career, only approached by the 3.5 yards per carry he had in his rookie year with Pittsburgh.
In Bell's other four years with Pittsburgh, he topped 4.0 yards per carry, and despite the down 2019, his career yards per carry is a full yard higher at 4.2 ypc. Bell was at 3.9 yards per carry in his two Jets games in 2020 before his release.
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No 100-yard rushing games
Bell played in 17 games for the Jets and never once topped 100 yards rushing in a contest. Of course some of his value comes as a receiver, but not to that extent that he would never break the century mark on the ground.
For reference, Bell broke 100-yards rushing 18 times with the Steelers in 62 games with Pittsburgh, a rate of better than once every four games. The Jets' offense has certainly been poor, but Bell didn't help.
Decreased touchdown percentage
In 62 games with the Steelers, Bell scored 42 rushing plus receiving touchdowns. That's a rate of two touchdowns every three games. In New York, Bell scored three offensive touchdowns in 17 games, a rate of barely better than one touchdown every six games.
And while in Pittsburgh the star RB had eight multi-touchdown games, he never scored twice in one game with the Jets.
Best games came in losses
Considering how much Bell struggled with the Jets, there's not one perfect way to measure his "best games." But we can go with the eyeball test and see that most of them came in losses (admittedly in a 7-9 2019 season for the Jets).
Bell had 92 total yards and a touchdown in Week 1: loss. How about 68 rushing, 10 catches and 61 receiving in Week 2? Loss. Another 121 total yards in Week 9, another loss. His season-best 87 rushing yards came in a loss, too. The best game Bell played in a win was in Week 16 in a revenge game against the Steelers, when he ran for 72 yards and received another 21 yards with no scores to beat a tandem of Mason Rudolph and Duck Hodges.