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LeVeon Bell created a disconnect between your average tape-watcher and your average stat-collector during his rookie season.
After being drafted in the second round, Bell was injured entering the season but became the Steelers' work-horse back when healthy. The then 21-year-old running back compiled 860 yards on 244 carries and 399 yards on 45 receptions. Bell averaged just 3.5 yards per carry and 8.9 yards per reception. His eight touchdowns weren't enough to offset his meager averages in the eyes of most who appreciated his statistical production.
As a rookie, Bell was more impressive than his statistics.
He ran behind an offensive line that was missing it's most talented player, center Maurkice Pouncey, for the season, while it's second most talented player, David DeCastro, was struggling after missing his rookie season with a torn ACL. Mike Adams was meant to be the team's starter at left tackle, but he lost his place to the consistent but limited Kelvin Beachum. Beachum and Ramon Foster were the team's starters on the left side of the line, with Marcus Gilbert on the right side.
Bell was running behind an offensive line that simply wasn't performing. On a regular basis he was setting up blocks and creating yardage on his own because his line couldn't create space for him to work in.
The one positive for the offensive line was that it was still very young on the whole. Only left guard Ramon Foster could be considered a true veteran of the regular starters who remained after Pouncey's loss. Now, in 2014, with one more year of development for each player and new offensive line coach Mike Munchak molding the unit, the offensive line has improved. That improvement has helped Bell, but it's not the biggest change this year. The biggest change is Bell himself.
At Michigan State, Bell was a big back who was quick for his size and who had a good all-around skill set. During his rookie season, he was lighter so his quickness improved to significantly help his impact on the field. While that change can't be overlooked, it has been somewhat marginalized by Bell's improvement from his first to his second year. No longer is Bell quick for his size, now he is just simply quick. Bell has seemingly lost around 20 lbs while working on his footwork to become an exceptionally elusive back.
Having this refined physical ability has allowed Bell to average 5.3 yards per carry and 12.4 yards per reception over the first two weeks of the regular season. He has just one touchdown, but also 168 rushing yards with 136 receiving yards. Bell has arguably been the most impressive back in the NFL to this point and the biggest surprise of any player in the league. The only question is whether this new-look running back is enjoying a temporary stretch of high-quality play, or if this is the kind of production that we can expect to be sustained.
When wondering about the sustainability of a player's production, the first thing to do is address the opposition.
Bell hasn't faced soft run defenses through two weeks of the season. Both the Cleveland Browns and Baltimore Ravens have the talent in the front seven that is required to overhwelm an offensive line of the caliber of the Steelers. Both also have the coaching to establish discipline and gap integrity when facing the running back in space. Bell wasn't simply given easy yards against either of these teams. This is reflected in Pro Football Focus' interpretation of his tape, as they believe he has broken 15 tackles on both run and pass plays to this point of the season.
Broken tackles can be prevalent for different reasons. Either the running back forces them with his ability, or the defense gives them up with their poor technique or inferior physical resilience.
As a rookie, Bell had the quickness to make defenders miss and adjust quickly behind the line of scrimmage. In his second season, he has shown off a greater ability to breakaway from the defense in space with his straight-line speed and more abilities to vary his quickness in the open field. As his touchdown run against the Cleveland Browns showed, Bell can start and stop with varying speeds to react to different situations and deceive potential tacklers. He also showed off more decisive cuts with his foot placement and speed.
Bell's slightly improved offensive line gave Bell the opportunity to run into space in the secondary, while his newfound speed allowed him to extend the play to the end zone.
As this play from 2013 highlights, Bell didn't have this kind of breakaway speed last season. He was capable of creating big plays with his quickness and he had the speed to extend them to a degree, but when in a good position to breakaway he was always at risk of being caught from behind. When any running back loses as much weight as Bell has lost, questions arise about how much power he gave up to gain this speed.
To this point, it doesn't appear that Bell has lost any of his power.
On this play against the Ravens, Bell finds his way onto the second-level of the defense again. Haloti Ngata, the huge defensive linemen who is famed for his athleticism and power, gets Bell in his grasp five yards down the field. Bell is able to shrug Ngata off before bouncing off an attempted tackle from another defender. He maintains his balance and finds his way to the sideline for a first down and a big gain.
This is the kind of play that reassures onlookers of Bell's strength and resilience against contact, but not his power to explode through contact.
Bell didn't break a large number of tackles as a rookie, but he was regularly finishing plays moving forward by being aggressive at the point of contact and using his bulk to fall forward. While there are many runs that show off his ability to finish plays moving forward from the first two games of this season, we're still waiting to see if Bell can lower his shoulder and explode through a tackle like he did on occasion last year.
With his vision, that may only be a minor part of his play either way.
Bell sets up his runs as well as anyone in the NFL. He understands that defenders will react to his initial movements and he has the quickness of thought with the requisite awareness to affect them at speed. With his renewed athleticism, Bell has seemingly found an even greater comfort with his movement on the field. He regularly hesitates himself into a complete stop behind the line of scrimmage before bursting forward to find a weak spot in the defense. He doesn't loose speed through his cuts and he has developed a jump-cut that allows him to slip through smaller cracks in his offensive line.
When the Steelers lost Maurkice Pouncey last season, they seemingly moved away from the zone-blocking system they wanted to employ upfront. With Pouncey back in the offense, they appear to be focusing more on these types of runs.
These types of runs suit Bell. Not only do they play to his quickness, but they also allow him to show off his excellent abillity to recognize cutback opportunities. Bell is very quick to find space whereever it appears. He doesn't work with a narrowed view of his options and stays aware of his surroundings at all times. He is now the kind of back that this scheme was designed for.
As impressive as Bell has been as a runner, he has been equally as effective as a receiver.
Through two games, Bell has 11 receptions. Over a 16 game season, his current average projects to 88 receptions. For a running back who is also going to lead his team in carries, 88 receptions would be a phenomenal achievement. It's very unlikely that Bell reaches that number, but that doesn't mean he won't be a very valuable receiver for the Steelers.
Bell will be competing with Dri Archer for his receptions out of the backfield. Archer was selected as a receiver-running back hybrid in the third round of this year's draft. In any traditional offense, his presence would significantly hurt Bell's potential for production as a receiver, but not in this offense.
Because of Ben Roethlisberger's limitations throwing the ball down the field and the Steelers' lack of proven receivers outside of Antonio Brown and Heath Miller, the Steelers are running a screen-heavy, short passing game this year. This means that Bell and Archer will be heavily involved on underneath throws. In Week 1, Archer was healthy and on the field. He and Bell lined up on the field together to create space for each other by stretching the defense's assignments.
While Archer isn't a proven player or phenomenal physical specimen, he has the speed, quickness and elusiveness in the open field that makes defenses take notice of his presence on every play.
On the above screen, Archer draws one linebacker into the flat when he runs his route. This helps to create space for Bell down the field when he cuts inside after making the catch on the screen play to the other side of the field. While the linebacker may solely have had to account for Archer because that is his assignment, he has no option but to be aggressive in accounting for him because of Archer's speed.
Archer has the kind of speed that will allow him to score from anywhere on the field. He should be a dangerous screen receiver, but most importantly, both he and Bell are able to line up outside and run routes as receivers.
Obviously Bell won't be facing the opposition's top cornerbacks in press coverage and beating them on a regular basis, but he won't need to do that. Especially not when the Steelers have an all-pro caliber wide receiver, Antonio Brown, drawing the attention of the defense. Much like Darren Sproles has been throughout his career, Bell only needs to be the kind of back who can exploit the situations the defense puts him in. Playing off-coverage against him isn't advisable because he is very comfortable running quick routes to catch the ball underneath.
He has the ability to run routes further down the field, but he likely won't do that a huge amount in this offense.
Part of the reason that Bell has had 11 receptions to this point is Archer's absence in the second game against the Baltimore Ravens. Bell will likely have games during the season when he only has one or two catches at the most because Archer will become the focus of the offense. The fewer games the Archer plays, the more likely it is that Bell has more than 80 receptions on the season.
After catching 45 passes as a rookie in 13 games, a fully healthy Bell for 16 games should at least be hoping for 60 receptions. Those 60 receptions may come at the expense of some carries because the Steelers will likely be playing from behind a lot with their underwhelming defense.
Bell's production to this point hasn't been a fluke. He hasn't simply benefited from facing poor defenses in a good situation. He has been creating his own production while also benefiting from the Steelers' new identity on offense and a slight upgrade on the offensive line. His physical alteration and his consistent mental ability should allow him to be one of the most productive players in the NFL this season.
At 22 years of age, he could be one of the most productive players in the league for a long time too.
