Production, Production, Production
That’s all Le’Veon Bell has given to the Steelers since he’s been in the league. Since 2013, Bell is fifth in rushing yards, behind LeSean McCoy, Frank Gore, Lamar Miller, and DeMarco Murray. However, Bell sat out all of 2018, which means the other running backs in front of him have played in 27, 32, 30, and 14 more games respectively. Out of the five running backs, Bell has the highest average yards per game with 86.1. Just for fun, let’s extrapolate that yardage another 32 games. That’s another 2,755 yards, which would have put him at 8,091 yards rushing since 2013. Obviously this did not happen, but for him to be on that pace is incredible.
Not only is Bell dangerous when getting the handoff, he is also pretty nifty as a receiver. In the same time frame mentioned above, Bell has the most receptions for a running back with 312. He also has the most receiving yards and is fourth in receiving yards per game with 42.9. He trails two second year players (Alvin Kamara and Christian McCaffrey) and a rookie (Saquan Barkley) whom have a much smaller sample size than Bell. When the ball is in Bell’s hands after a catch, he makes the most out of it:
Even without playing a down this season, Le'Veon Bell leads all NFL running backs since 2014 in yards after the catch.
He's one of the 10 most notable free agents on offense who are set to hit the market this offseason:https://t.co/mg97rQAX0F pic.twitter.com/HYN2qiOIHi
— PFF (@PFF) January 3, 2019
Add the rushing yards per game average with the receiving yards average and you get a running back who will give you 129 total yards per game on his own. But there is one other aspect of his game that the Eagles would welcome just as much as his production.
