When Le’Veon Bell showed up to the Jets last July after a full year off from football, he thought he was in great shape. He believed his strength, his conditioning, and his body had all been tuned enough so he’d be ready to resume taking an NFL pounding.

But now he knows he was wrong.

“I felt like I was ready,” Bell said on Wednesday during his first Zoom press conference of training camp. “I felt like I was conditioned and I was in good shape for the season. Even when I was playing I felt good.

“But now, sitting here as I look back on it, it’s like ‘Dang, I wasn’t even close to where I wanted to be. If I wanted to take that next step and be, like, a great player, I didn’t work nearly hard enough.”

So after the worst statistical season of his NFL career, Bell went back to work harder than ever to make sure he was ready to show the Jets he was still the Pro Bowl running back he was with the Steelers way back in 2017. He said he reported to Jets camp weighing 210-215 – about 10-15 pounds lighter than he was last season and the lightest he’s been since high school. And he said he’s feeling better, at age 28, than he’s felt at any time during his previous six years in the NFL.

“This has been the best I've felt and I’m ready to show it,” Bell said. “I’m ready to show this is the best Le’Veon Bell that’s ever played in the NFL.”

That would be great news for the Jets, especially since they got the worst version of Bell in 2019 after signing him to a four-year, $52.5 million contract. He rushed for just 789 yards on a career-worst 3.2 yards per carry, never hitting 100 yards in a game and topping 75 only once. He wasn’t much of a factor in the passing game either, catching 66 passes for a middling 461 yards.

That’s not what the Jets paid for and there were plenty of reasons why. In fact, during the offseason, Bell heard them all: How the offensive line was a mess, how injuries depleted the offense around him, and of course how Adam Gase, who didn’t want him in the first place, didn’t find enough ways to get him the ball.

No one would’ve blamed Bell for agreeing that all those were big factors in his misery. But much to his credit, he dismissed every one and put the blame squarely on his shoulders instead.

“I don’t like making excuses,” he said. “Everyone tries to make excuses like the O-line or like Coach Gase not giving (me) the ball or whatever. I’m saying I wasn’t nearly what I should’ve been. There’s a lot of runs where ‘I had you,’ you know what I’m saying? And I didn’t make the play.

“I can’t let that happen this year.”

That’s why he ramped up his workouts in the months after the Jets’ 7-9 season ended. In fact, he said he worked so hard, he even surprised himself.

“I’ve worked hard, which is why I’ve been successful,” Bell said. “But I haven’t worked nearly as hard as I’ve worked the last 6-7 months.”

He admitted that before this offseason “I kind of got complacent in my head” after six successful NFL seasons – and surely the big contract had something to do with that, too.

“I’ve always had something to come and drive me,” Bell admitted. “When I stared hearing ‘Oh, Le’Veon, you’re the best running back in the league,’ it’s not like I stopped working hard. It’s more like, ‘Dang, if I only had that edge, that chip.’”

His 2019 season gave that edge back to him. “Now when I work out,” he said, “it’s ‘How much better can I be?’”

The Jets can’t wait to find out, of course, because a healthy, motivated Bell is an enormously important piece of their 2020 plans. They have high hopes for young quarterback Sam Darnold to emerge as an elite passer in his third NFL season, especially with a rebuilt offensive line in front of him, but they haven’t exactly surrounded him with a cast of All-Pro weapons.

Bell is the best weapon he’s got.

And now he’s got that rebuilt offensive line to work behind too, plus a lot more knowledge in his second season in Gase’s offense. So there are no more excuses for Bell – not that he would ever use one anyway.

“I look at myself like ‘Was I really the best that I can be?’” he said. “And I know I wasn’t. I wasn’t even close. This year will be a lot different.

“I’m ready to show everybody what I can do.”

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