The Chiefs have won the Le’Veon Bell sweepstakes. The two-time All-Pro running back agreed to a deal to sign with the defending Super Bowl champions, Tom Pelissero and Jim Trotter of NFL.com report (on Twitter).
Bell considered the Bills and Dolphins as well, and the Dolphins were believed to have offered a two-year deal. But the Chiefs, who were on the verge of an agreement with Bell on Wednesday night, have landed the recently released back.
It is a one-year contract with incentives, according to ESPN.com’s Adam Schefter and SI.com’s Albert Breer (Twitter links). Bell indeed was hoping to catch on with a contender, per Schefter. After spending parts of two seasons with a struggling Jets team, the former Steelers standout will be back in a playoff race.
This will give Clyde Edwards-Helaire an experienced tandem partner, with this Bell agreement putting him on track to take over for Darrel Williams and Darwin Thompson as the rookie’s top backup. But while 2019 late-summer free agency addition LeSean McCoy could not stick as Damien Williams‘ backup, Bell was prioritizing fit in an offense. It seems likely he will see a significant role alongside Edwards-Helaire.
While McCoy had strong track records on two teams, Bell bombed with his second franchise. Adam Gase did not want the running back at the $13.25MM-per-year price, and the Jets fit indeed turned out to be poor. The former Steelers dynamo lumbered for a career-low 3.2 yards per carry in 2019. This season, he suffered a hamstring injury in Week 1 and missed three games. Upon return in Week 5, Bell did average 4.62 yards per tote. That is a small sample size, but the showing may have reignited the Jets’ efforts to deal Bell. No takers emerged, and the team cut its losses with a Tuesday release. Bell will land with a much better offense.
Kansas City’s offense now houses five former first-team All-Pros — Bell, Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce, Mitchell Schwartz and Tyreek Hill. (This number would have been six had ex-Bell teammate Kelechi Osemele not suffered severe knee injuries Sunday.) While this was the case last year with McCoy as well, the 28-year-old Bell brings lower mileage to Kansas City. Aided by his skipping the 2018 season in a franchise tag dispute with the Steelers, Bell has 1,874 career touches. McCoy had over 2,800 when he signed with Kansas City.
Bell will need to prove he still has upper-echelon ability; he did not record a 20-yard run as a Jet. His most recent 100-yard rushing game came in 2017; the former second-round pick never cleared 90 rushing yards in a Jets game. As a Steeler, Bell posted 1,800-plus scrimmage yards three times en route to the 2014 and ’17 All-Pro teams. He added three 75-catch seasons in that span, so seeing how Andy Reid deploys him will be an interesting October NFL storyline.
The earliest Bell could make his Chiefs debut would be Week 7, with COVID-19 protocols requiring free agents to pass nearly a week’s worth of coronavirus tests in order to begin practicing with their new teams. The Chiefs face the Jets in Week 8.
Bell, I hope you give them hell. Show everybody that the Jets were wrong to give up on you.
Give up on him? This disgruntled unmotivated piece of garbage gave up on the Jets.
You must be as cross eyed as Gase during his intro presser.
Ha!….if he performs well it will be another player added to the laundry list of players who succeeded after leaving the joke Gase…. Gase is the problem clearly
Jeez you’re misinformed.
okay Gase’s burner
He was a product of the system in Pitt … he leaves Connor ( average back) does great. Connor hurt , Snell rushes for 100 yards. Bell was hurt then Deangelo Williams did great. Bell was great because if Big Ben and AB opening up the field for him to run. … he is a system back that needs a supporting cast. He’s not someone that can carry a team like Barry Sanders … and many more
Well, if he needs a supporting cast, he’s done pretty well…
That’s funny…
While I agree that the system certainly helped him, along with that offensive line, he has good instincts as a runner with that delayed burst approach. That’s not something that is easily done.
Yeah lets not cheer bell on bradbluefish. Last thing we need is a precedent set that its ok to do what bell did. Antonio brown almost pulled off the same thing when he went to the patriots but started his antics before his raiders contract was guaranteed. Bell was in a great system on a good team in pittsburg. They offered to make him the highest paid rb in nfl but he wanted wr money. He held out for an entire year to get what he wanted. Then he decides to take the money and sign with a notoriously crappy team, not so that he could win and score a dozen tds a year but so he get could get paid. I dont have an issue with that but then you shouldnt be allowed to turn around and complain constantly on twitter about the situation your in. He signed the contract with the team he wanted with the same coach. Now he still gets paid the money from the jets but gets to go to a winning playoff team for basically no cost to that team. This shouldnt be allowed and i hope it doesnt happen again. Im rooting heavily against bell
Let’s not paint Pittsburgh as a model of virtue in this. They were running Bell straight into the ground with just an absolutely ridiculous amount of carries, too. Once he wasn’t going to agree to what they wanted, they were going to use him up and toss him aside.
Also Bell isn’t Brown. Brown is a piece of human garbage. Bell just wanted to be paid.
Dumb
Le’Veon is a cancer
So much for the Super Bowl repeat I was hoping for
Lol please explain how LeVeon is a cancer?Is it because he wanted to get paid fairly with PIT (as he should’ve) and took a chance by sitting out a year? You wanna talk about “being a cancer”? Sign Antonio Brown. That dude is a cancer. Bell is nowhere close to that. But it looks like you’ve already made him the scapegoat if you guys don’t win it all lmao
Did we quickly forget that he was also suspended in 2015 AND 2016 for failed drug tests? (Don’t care if you believe these shouldn’t count, he hurt the team by breaking the rules at the time).
So what? Nobody cares about drug tests. He was still the best player on the Steelers at the time and was worth the money he was asking for from the Steelers. If sitting out a year and taking a risk is considered being a cancer in the locker room, then man I don’t know what to call Antonio Brown then with all his antics. Lol
He’s an adult he signed a contract keep your word shut your mouth and get to work. Some of these players are spoiled little babies.
Nobody cares about drug tests? Perhaps you need one yourself.
When a player gets suspended, especially one of upper tier talent, the team most certainly cares.
He shat on the Steelers over a contract. He shat on the Jets because they aren’t nearly as competitive and his numbers fell off a cliff.
Let’s take wagers on how long it will take til the Chiefs piss him off because he isn’t going to get nearly the reps as he did in NY or Pitt
Steeler fan here. He was a cancer.
You obviously know nothing. Bell has been a great teammate!
this offense has a chance to just be so scary good even more so than it already is now
Overrated. CEH is better than him now. Bell is just a depth piece.
CEH is overrated. He can’t score in the red zone. CEH will end up being nothing more than a Gio Bernard , Sproles, James White, Chris Thompson … watch , he had 1 game out of 5 so far on the most potent offense in football.
You have zero clues
Hey guys, bumpy 93 thinks the chiefs offense has a chance to be scary good. Dare we say good enough to win a super bowl? Great take bumpy. The chiefs got in a shootout with the rams last year on monday night football that went over 100 points. They had kareem hunt 2 years ago. I think everyone is fully aware the chiefs offense is scary good
They didn’t scare the Raiders much last week as double digit favorites.
I believe using the word “won” may be quite the loose translation
Was it really winning a sweepstakes or more like finding a broken knockoff Rolex at a garage sale?
Gase is a clown not a coach
I’m not saying Bell will be a top 10 RB but I can’t justify saying he is washed either.
It’s almost as if people forget what he did in a good system and only remember what he did in arguably one of the worst systems. Adam Gase is literally that bad.
Again I’m not saying Bell will be but I’m intrigued to see how he does in a great system again. And CEH isn’t this amazing RB yet. He’s a good back with good hands right now who has had limited opportunities because they have trailed in 2 games the entire second half.
Bell can still catch. 66 for almost 500 last year and thats with Gase trying to ruin him.
Too many people saying he won’t do anything. He should get most goal-line work.
Bell had more receptions last year than Sammy Watkins has had in a season in his career. They can find stuff for him to do without giving him the ball 20 times a game.
Sammy Watkins is A) not that good, B) injury prone (he has only played a full season once), and C) not a checkdown option like a running back (Bell) would be. And Bell’s 461 yards receiving last year would be the second-worst total of Watkins career (the worst–430 yards–was a season that Watkins only played 8 games). Not sure what point you’re trying to make.
Well we all saw what Andy did with McCoy last year. In the end he had nothing left and didn’t suit up for the Super Bowl. Bell will either accept his role and play as a team member or be gone.
McCoy was 31…not 28. And McCoy had nothing left prior. This isn’t the same situation.
The Chiefs WERE short on receiving talent…
Bell has a chance to go to a Super Bowl. The chiefs are still dominate in the AFC WEST. Bell is a good RB but it’s been a rough couple of years. The last time he did good was 2017 before the Steelers became the keeping up with the kardashians. He hasn’t ran over 1,000 yards as well since 2017. 2018 he spent time healing after a injury and in 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 the jets are weak and had no front line to protect him. The Chiefs front line is solid and Bell will run 1,000 yards this year with 6-10 TDS I predict
Normally when the Chiefs are picking up a potentially elite talent for a low cost it’s because they are ignoring their prior domestic violence issues.
This seems like a no brainer. Lev just eats too much and has a bad agent.
This site is terrible for response time. I don’t know if covering half the day is all that’s in the budget or what. Kind of a half azzed to be all this site can be … 50 % of the time. It’s awesome for half a day.
So find your news elsewhere.
Wow, lots of venom up in here! On a lighter note, this SUCKS for my fantasy team! He’s going to cut into Edwards-Helairre’s carries and take away TD’s! But that’s just me! And although I don’t think he was a “cancer” in Pittsburgh because he wanted to get paid, I do think he was a shady teammate the way he went about it. And comparing him to AB is ridiculous. That POS takes the “cancer” cake all by himself. He’s just a straight up miserable human being and a sad ass dumpster fire of a man!