Adam Gase’s stint with the New York Jets has been dissected from every angle over the years, but few accounts hit harder than hearing it straight from a former All-Pro. For Le’Veon Bell, the frustration wasn’t abstract or analytical. He was in the middle of it all … the pent-up frustration was built in real time.
The Game That Broke Former Running Back Le’Veon Bell’s Trust in Head Coach Adam Gase
Bell let it fly on the recent episode of “Respectfully The Justin LaBoy Show.” He had LaBoy crying with laughter after calling out his old Jets coach for being the worst coach of all time.
What he described wasn’t just disagreement with a coach. It was a complete breakdown in trust, rooted in moments that, to him, made no footballing sense.
Bell began his rant with: “I really hated that dude. Adam Gase, bro. He might have been the dumbest coach ever. I promise you, if it’s second and nine and Adam Gase is the coach, he’s calling a halfback dive. Every time. There’s not one time I was in the huddle on second and nine or second and ten, and he didn’t call a dive.
“Anytime I looked at the yard marker on the sideline and saw the play coming in, I didn’t even need to listen. I’d just line up. I already knew the play. He’s about to give me a dive. Worst play in football. Worst coach in the NFL.”
Bell could have stopped there after calling him the “worst coach,” but he didn’t. He went on to justify his statement with a real-time experience.
“One time, we’re about to play the Bengals. We have a normal Wednesday practice. Thursday comes, we’re doing a wet ball drill because it’s supposed to rain on Sunday. That’s normal.
“He calls me over like he’s about to tell me a secret. I go over there. He says, ‘You know it’s supposed to rain a lot Sunday.’ I said, ‘Yeah, I know. Big game.’ He says, ‘I’m looking to throw the ball about 40-plus times.’
“I looked at him and said, ‘What? You’re going to throw the ball 40-plus times? It’s raining. The ball is going to be wet.’ He said, ‘No, think about it. The receivers know where they’re going, but the defenders don’t. They might slip and we can get a big play.’”
Ex-NFL star Le’Veon Bell had Justin Laboy crying of LAUGHTER after CALLING OUT his old NY Jets coach, Adam Gase, for being the WORST coach of all time & EXPOSING him for doing C*KE in his office 😳💀👀
“He might have been the dumbest coach ever… We got practice in 28 minutes… pic.twitter.com/3lbDlrBkw4
— Slime🐍 (@ItsKingSlime) April 26, 2026
“He looked me right in my eyes and said that. This was 2019, and I wasn’t trying to cause any issues in the media, so I just held it in. But that’s what caused the stress.
“He straight-up told me we were about to throw the ball 40-plus times because it was going to rain all game. How much sense does that make? That’s backwards. We’re supposed to be running the ball. That’s how you get yards in those conditions.
“Go look at the stats. We threw the ball 40-plus times and lost. We lost to the Bengals. That was their first win of the year. They were ranked dead last against the run, and I got the ball like four times because we wanted to pass that much.”
The numbers back Bell’s memory. Sam Darnold, under center for the Jets, threw it 48 times that day. They ran it just 17. Bell, the centerpiece of a $52.5 million deal, carried it only 10 times in a rain-soaked game against the league’s worst run defense.
The result was predictable: a 22-6 loss to an 0-11 Bengals team getting its first win of the season. That single game became the clearest snapshot of Gase’s tenure. The game script ignored the opponent’s weakness. Weather was dismissed. Personnel usage didn’t align with investment. And when it unraveled, there was no pivot.
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Bell’s frustration wasn’t about one bad call. It was about a pattern. Predictable sequencing, rigid philosophy, and an unwillingness to adjust mid-game. For a running back built on rhythm and volume, that environment was a dead end.
By season’s end, the results told the same story. The Jets finished ranked last in PFSN’s NFL Offense Impact Metrics. For Bell, the tape, the stats, and the experience all pointed to the same conclusion.
