It was reported that Curtis was actively recruiting Bell during the negotiations. and I don't believe that tweet for a second....
Wow..according to OTC, Bell's cap number is only 8.5M this year...we should still have a ton of money left to spend. https://overthecap.com/salary-cap/new-york-jets/
Could be BS... there was a LOT of BS flying around twitter on Monday night. And, I think bell went to the highest bidder... Curtis Martin or not.
The market wasn't great for Bell, but he got a pretty good deal and was able to pick the team he wanted to play on.
I always laughed at those who posted youtube video of Bell stating he wouldn't play for the Jets. Said it time and time again. NYJ never had Sam Darnold on our roster once those sarcastic remarks were made. Darnold + Cap space = Le'Veon Bell a Jet.
Still have 74 not counting Anderson, McClendon, Crowder or Mosley, but with Bellamy, Bell, and Osemele. So in essence somewhere near 30 to 40mill left. Take out around 10 for the draft class and we have between 20 and 30 mill of true space.
we'll never know for sure his deciding factor but it has been well known he grew up a jet fan and loved curtis martin for many years. this site showed his tweets from 2011 when he was in college stating as much https://jetswire.usatoday.com/2016/01/24/steelers-running-back-leveon-bell-is-a-die-hard-jets-fan/
I did some estimates and we are roughly around 35 mil currently but could be higher if other major contracts (anderson and mosely) are backloaded
Poor guy was practically begging somebody else to give him a shot. The lie was his agent trying to make people think anybody but the Jets were interested.