Jets fire GM Mike Maccagnan, and the decision might be tied to the signing of LeVeon Bell. Adam Gase, some believe, didn’t want New York to sign Bell. Interesting.
“Gase absolutely did not want to sign Le’Veon Bell, per sources,” tweets Manish Mehta of the New York Daily News. “In fact, he made it clear that he didn’t want to spend a lot of money on any running back.”
That’s an interesting take. If true, it could make for an awkward coach-player marriage. Bell got things off to a rough start when he chose not to attend the team’s voluntary offseason workouts.
If Gase isn’t a Bell fan, that would make it seem less likely that he’ll be making an extra effort to get the ball in Bell’s hands. Particularly around the goal line.
In Miami, Gase famously tended to forget about his running game around the goal line. Inside the 5-yard line, the Dolphins ran the ball only 11 times in the last 32 games of his watch – 10 fewer than every other team.
In the last two years of Gase, the Dolphins scored only 3 rushing touchdowns inside the 5. Every other team scored at least 10.
This is a new team with new players, but I’m not confident Bell will be getting his number called a bunch around the goal line.
| RUSHING ATTEMPTS INSIDE THE 5 (2017-18) | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team | Att | Yards | Avg | TD | 2Pt | EZ% |
| New Orleans | 57 | 70 | 1.23 | 28 | 4 | 56.1% |
| LA Rams | 51 | 65 | 1.27 | 26 | 1 | 52.9% |
| New England | 48 | 51 | 1.06 | 25 | 0 | 52.1% |
| Carolina | 47 | 63 | 1.34 | 21 | 1 | 46.8% |
| Jacksonville | 46 | 44 | .96 | 18 | 0 | 39.1% |
| Dallas | 43 | 52 | 1.21 | 17 | 1 | 41.9% |
| Minnesota | 40 | 37 | .93 | 14 | 1 | 37.5% |
| Philadelphia | 40 | 36 | .90 | 11 | 6 | 42.5% |
| Pittsburgh | 40 | 44 | 1.10 | 22 | 0 | 55.0% |
| Atlanta | 39 | 42 | 1.08 | 13 | 0 | 33.3% |
| Tampa Bay | 39 | 38 | .97 | 17 | 1 | 46.2% |
| Baltimore | 37 | 49 | 1.32 | 16 | 1 | 45.9% |
| Cleveland | 37 | 34 | .92 | 18 | 3 | 56.8% |
| San Francisco | 37 | 32 | .86 | 14 | 0 | 37.8% |
| Buffalo | 36 | 25 | .69 | 13 | 0 | 36.1% |
| Tennessee | 36 | 45 | 1.25 | 18 | 0 | 50.0% |
| Chicago | 35 | 50 | 1.43 | 18 | 1 | 54.3% |
| NY Jets | 35 | 30 | .86 | 15 | 1 | 45.7% |
| Kansas City | 34 | 51 | 1.50 | 21 | 1 | 64.7% |
| Detroit | 32 | 35 | 1.09 | 14 | 0 | 43.8% |
| Denver | 31 | 29 | .94 | 14 | 0 | 45.2% |
| Houston | 30 | 38 | 1.27 | 14 | 1 | 50.0% |
| LA Chargers | 30 | 19 | .63 | 13 | 1 | 46.7% |
| Washington | 30 | 31 | 1.03 | 14 | 0 | 46.7% |
| Green Bay | 29 | 27 | .93 | 13 | 0 | 44.8% |
| Indianapolis | 28 | 44 | 1.57 | 15 | 1 | 57.1% |
| NY Giants | 25 | 39 | 1.56 | 11 | 2 | 52.0% |
| Oakland | 24 | 39 | 1.63 | 12 | 0 | 50.0% |
| Seattle | 24 | 16 | .67 | 10 | 0 | 41.7% |
| Cincinnati | 22 | 30 | 1.36 | 13 | 0 | 59.1% |
| Arizona | 21 | 22 | 1.05 | 11 | 0 | 52.4% |
| Miami | 11 | 9 | .82 | 3 | 1 | 36.4% |
—Ian Allan