Sam Darnold and Le'Veon Bell's chemistry this season will be vital for the Jets' offense to flourish. Yet, these two won't be able to truly test that until Week 1 of the regular season.
Head coach Adam Gase has already made it known that Bell won't be seeing any preseason snaps, especially after what happened to Avery Williamson in the last preseason bout against the Falcons. The Jets lost him for the season due to a torn ACL, something Gase took the blame for after saying he wanted to take him out a series earlier.
So Darnold and Bell must continue to mend their bond during practice reps. But Darnold admitted after practice on Wednesday that there are some things that only game action can show Bell about Gase's offense.
"There are different things throughout the game," Darnold explained. "I might be feeling something and he might run a route a certain way and it could look different in practice than in a game, so there is a difference there. But again, we're not going to know that difference until we get out there on the field together. So far in practice, it's been great just communicating back and forth always and Le'Veon has been nothing but a great teammate so far. So, I'm sure that will translate on the playing field."
Bell is itching to get his reps in games, though, as he wants to build that chemistry with Darnold just as much as his quarterback.
"I hate watching Sam play because I want to be in there with him," Bell said. "I just want to be in there because I know how special he is. ... Just watching him each and every week, he will continue to grow."
"He literally wants to be perfect" - @LeVeonBell says Sam Darnold can be a top-5 quarterback pic.twitter.com/uyl0ZkYcq6
- Jets Videos (@snyjets) August 21, 2019
Darnold likes to have a little fun with Bell's eagerness to play as well.
"Yeah, he's out there in pregame with the pads on and dancing around and he's like, "Let's go, guys! Come on! Get fired up!" I'm like, 'Bro, you're not even playing,'" Darnold said laughing.
Once these two do finally touch the field together, the possibilities are endless. Not only is Bell extremely elusive when he has the ball in his hands, but Darnold is also pretty good with his feet. That means we could see some fun read option plays and even ad-libbed situations when the pocket collapses.
Bell always finds a way to get open, and Darnold knows he'll be looking his way a ton this season.
"Obviously game situation with me scrambling is different than maybe escaping a rush or two and him just kind of finding the open zone," Darnold said. "We haven't really gotten a ton of work at that, which I know he's really good at, so I'm excited about that."
The suspense is surely killing Jets fans, but know that it's also killing Bell as well. You can tell from his excitement during press conferences and even answering questions after practice that he's truly ready to show the Jets and the rest of the league that he's back.
Only two more weeks, Le'Veon.