One of the biggest fallouts from the firing of Jets general manager Mike Maccagnan had to have been the report of coach Adam Gase not wanting to spend a ton of money on a running back and not really wanting Le’Veon Bell on the team.
The Jets still signed free-agent running back Le’Veon Bell to a four-year, $52.5 million contract back in March.
Gase addressed those reports Thursday.
“We signed him. I’m excited we have him,” Gase said. ”I’ve been in constant communication with him. Discussions happen, and to me when you’re going through free agency … we signed a lot of guys. You’re trying to put together a big puzzle. You’re trying to figure out money, fit, locker room, all those things. There’s just a lot of things that go into all that stuff. Discussions are had. Whether or not we disagreed on anything, if it was financially that’s a completely different story than the person or the player. That’s where a lot of this gets misconstrued.”
Gase made sure to emphasize how excited he is to have Bell on the squad.
“Le’Veon Bell is a great player,” Gase said. “He is a good person. He’s been in constant contact with me. I enjoyed my interaction with him when he was here, when he came on his visit for his physical, when we signed him, when he was here for the beginning of phase one. He texts me all the time. All that stuff you get on Instagram, I get it first. That’s how I know what he’s doing.”
“I’m excited to get him in the offense so I can figure out what else can we do with him, what hasn’t he done, what can he be great at in this system,” Gase said.
As far the reports of the Jets possibly trading Bell — Gase shot down those rumors.
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“That’s ridiculous,” Gase said.
He also took issue with another report that stated he didn’t want the Jets to break the bank with C.J. Mosley, who signed a five-year, $85 million deal in March.
“Those words never came out of my mouth on him,” Gase said. “We did everything we could to get him. I think I took a paycut. Whatever we had to do get him, that’s what we wanted to do.”
