FLORHAM PARK, NJ – New York Jets coach Adam Gase met with running back Le’Veon Bell to clarify the situation following a Twitter rant from Bell in which he questioned his withdrawal a scrum of the instrasquad.
“I was a bit caught off guard, but we had a good conversation,” Gase said on Saturday. “I told him I felt our relationship was much better than him on social media … that he could come talk to me.”
The dispute arose after Wednesday’s scrum, when Gase told reporters he shot Bell after two sets due to hamstring strain. He inserted Frank Gore and, later, rookie La’Mical Perine.
A few minutes later, Bell took to Twitter and said “there’s nothing wrong with my hamstrings” and “it’s hard to stay loose when you do a bunch of standing around … and I am used to GOINGGG. “
The Gase-Bell relationship has come under intense scrutiny since signing with the Jets in March 2019. Gase said they spoke for “a long time” after Wednesday’s row.
“We talked about a lot of things,” Gase said. “We talked about some things that maybe we can do a little differently. He understood how I was going to do certain things in training. He’s a veteran player who has been around for a while.
“When I explained some things to him, he understood what I was trying to do in practice. He knows we’ve tried threading the needle on quite a few things with reps, making sure we’re doing a good job. to get the guys in the right shape before week 1.
“This is unfamiliar territory to all of us,” added Gase, hinting at the impact of the pandemic on the rise of the regular season. “We’re just trying to find the best way to prepare for the first game.”
The Jets open against the Buffalo Bills on September 13.
Gase said that Bell “understood where I was from”. Bell has not been available for comment since the melee.
Bell’s hamstring strain apparently wasn’t an issue on Saturday. Besides two minutes of driving at the end of the practice, Bell got 14 representatives of the first team; Gore got nine. It’s a 60-40 split; they maintained roughly the same ratio for the whole camp.
Gase admitted he did a “bad job” last season with Bell, overworking him early in the season. Gase said he was “biting him to the point where he couldn’t have felt good in the second half of the season.
“(I’m trying) just to do the right thing and make sure we’re ready for week 1 and we can go 16 and over.”
Bell, 28, is coming off the worst statistical season of his season – 789 rushing yards and a 3.2 GPA. He reported camping in the best shape of his life, he said, planning for a career year.
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