Why Jets GM Joe Douglas released Le'Veon Bell, and how it shows there's still plenty of work to be done

The Jets and Le’Veon Bell were headed for a divorce eventually and everybody knew it. It was, after all, a shotgun marriage from the start. The fact that it ended now and not after the season is all about injury guarantees and the salary cap, not a larger sign of franchise dysfunction.

What it is, though, is a reminder that the Jets are still nowhere near where they need to be, still hoping to get a bounce up in the right direction. It’s a jolt of the reality that the Jets team that GM Joe Douglas inherited was a mess, and it’s going to take him a long, long time to rebuild.

It’s obviously still pretty early in that project too, because Douglas is still in the stage where he’s cleaning out the old from the disaster he inherited 16 months ago. He did it last season with the likes of cornerback Trumaine Johnson and guard Kelechi Osemele. He did it in the offseason with Jamal Adams and Robby Anderson. And he did it again late Tuesday night when he cut the disgruntled, 28-year-old Bell.

These players, like it or not, had no room on Douglas’ team, whether it was for talent, attitude or financial reasons. And once the rookie GM deems a player isn’t part of the future, he’s clearly not willing to waste time or mess around.

Bell hadn’t always fit into that category. He had been, in many ways, a model teammate in difficult circumstances last year. But he was clearly unhappy with his role last year, and was upset again when the Jets traded Adams, his friend and the player who helped lure him to New York. And that unhappiness seemed to carry over into the summer, first when he got into a public spat with head coach Adam Gase over whether an injury caused him to be pulled from a training camp scrimmage. Then on Sunday, he “liked” social media posts critical of Gase and suggesting that the Jets should trade him.

Those are hardly major crimes, even if they did turn out to be the final straw, and perhaps they were things the Jets could have tried to endure. But Bell is their past, not their future. And Douglas is all about the future. He also doesn’t want any unhappy players disrupting the “best culture in sports” that he promised he would build.

Still, it’s fair to question why Douglas didn’t endure this a little longer, with just three games to showcase him before the trading deadline on Nov. 3. Especially in this season, where a bevy of stars seem to drop every week, who knows what running back on a contender might have gotten hurt, leaving a team desperate for someone like Bell?

But the reality is, even then the market was probably was going to be thin. Douglas did shop Bell around already, speaking to all 31 other teams according to multiples sources. He even gave Bell’s agent permission to seek a deal on his own. The Jets were even willing to pick up a big chunk of the $6 million salary Bell is guaranteed the rest of this season. And all they wanted was a late-round draft pick in return.

Basically they were willing to offer the sweetest deal possible for someone to take Bell off their hands and still no one was willing to do it. That shows how low Bell’s value has sunk since he ended his year of exile and signed a four-year, $52.5 million deal with the Jets in March, 2019. And given his recent injury issues, no one was willing to risk owing him another $8 million next season if he suffered a serious injury – not even the Jets.

Because, let’s face it: Bell hasn’t been good. In fact, he’s been a terrible waste of money. In 17 games, he rushed 264 times for 863 yards and three touchdowns, while catching 69 passes for 500 yards and a touchdown. Blame the offensive line if you want, or the quarterback issues, or the play-calling of Gase. That’s all fair and true. But the 28-year-old Bell is also clearly not the player he was with the Steelers, and he wasn’t going to become that again any time soon.

So what would be the point of keeping him around, especially when he made it so clear he was unhappy with how he was being used? Just so quarterback Sam Darnold would have another weapon? That would be a fine argument, except Bell hasn’t been much of a weapon at all. Maybe now Gase can find a way to work rookie running back La’Mical Perine into the offense. He was one of the Jets’ most exciting players this summer. It’s past time for him to be used.

Perine, after all, is the future – at least he could be. So at 0-5 and fading fast, it’s better to let the future start now. And there’s no reason to saddle it with the baggage of unhappy players. Douglas knew he couldn’t let disgruntled stars like Adams and Bell drag the locker room down.

Are the Jets better without Bell? No, not in the short term. It’s the same as when they traded Adams away. But Douglas knows there is no short-term fix for this franchise. He’s playing a much longer game. And the reality is that as shocking as this move was this early in the season, Bell wasn’t part of the Jets’ long-term future.

So for Douglas, it really didn’t matter whether it happened now, three weeks from now, or even during the offseason. The GM has a lot of work to do to fix this downtrodden franchise. Getting rid of Bell, one way or another, was just part of the house-cleaning that still needed to be done.