News » One of the biggest stories about the Jets this week was the

absence of their new start running back from part of the offseason program. There has been plenty of media chatter about Le’Veon Bell..."One of the biggest stories about the Jets this week was the absence of their new start running back from part of the offseason program. There has been plenty of media chatter about Le’Veon Bell skipping part of the voluntary workouts. What should we make of the situation.The optics of this are not great.When you pay a player the kind of money the Jets are paying Bell White Joe Klecko Jerseys , you are making that player part of your team’s core. It certainly would be nice for appearances to see his first acts on the team to go above and beyond the bare minimum by showing up when he doesn’t have to do so. That probably counts for extra for a guy like Bell who left his last team under ugly circumstances.The Jets aren’t thrilled with Bell’s absence.We know this from Mike Maccagnan’s unofficial spokesman beat writer Manish Mehta.This whole situation is being blown ridiculously out of proportion.Yes, the optics are bad. Yes, the Jets are annoyed.I really don’t see this having an impact on the team at all, though. It just feels to me like we are in a dead time for football news. This is the time of year when mountains get made out of molehills simply because there is nothing else to discuss. Bell has every right to skip these workouts. He was granted this right because of the rules of the league the players and owners negotiated. He is an established player. He knows how to get himself ready for the season. If he doesn’t know how to do that, a handful of workouts in Florham Park won’t save him. I understand the Jets being annoyed. But if they were that concerned about his presence at the offseason program, they easily could have provided him a financial incentive to show by writing workout bonuses into his contract. By now it isn’t exactly a secret this is a player more motivated by money than showing symbolic commitment.It sounds like Bell has been around these workouts more than the media realizes anyway. Two years ago Joe Klecko Jerseys 2019 , former seventh-rounder Trevor Siemian was getting ready to beat out first-rounder Paxton Lynch for the starting job in Denver, for the second straight year. Now, Siemian is trying to hold on to the backup job with the Jets.Connor Hughes of TheAthletic.com suggests that Siemian may be losing his grip on the No. 2 spot on the New York depth chart.Via Hughes, former Giants’ third-rounder Davis Webb had an impressive offseason program, so impressive that he apparently jumped Siemian late in the OTA process. Hughes writes that Webb was the second quarterback to take the field during the final set of OTAs.Hughes adds that the Jets would like to keep only two quarterbacks on the final 53-man roster. Siemian, however White Wayne Chrebet Jerseys , has $1 million of his one-year, $2 million contract fully guaranteed. (He already has earned a $750,000 signing bonus.) So cutting Siemian and keeping Webb (who has a non-guaranteed salary of $645,000) would create enhanced expense and wasted money.It also would create the risk that, if the Jets need Siemian later, he won’t be available. Whether he’s signed by another NFL team or by the fledgling XFL — which plans to gobble up third- and fourth-string quarterbacks who are cut from NFL rosters — Siemian could be long gone if/when an injury creates a reason to bring him back.Ditto for Webb Wayne Chrebet Jerseys 2019 , who also could land with another team, or with the XFL.Another option, as Hughes notes, would be to trade Webb, who was regarded as having a bright future before he washed out with the Giants. Maybe that future is getting brighter, whether it’s with the Jets White Wesley Walker Jerseys , another NFL team, or ultimately as one of the eight starters for Vince McMahon’s resurrected spring league.