What It Means:

The Lions are thin in the backfield with Ameer Abdullah (foot) looking unlikely for Week 3. Bell hasn't provided much as a runner in years, but he's familiar with the offense in Detroit. If he's added to the roster, he would be third on the depth chart behind Theo Riddick and Dwayne Washington.

Bell declined in 2015, but wasn't useless by our metrics. Among the 72 running backs with at least 50 carries in 2015, Bell ranked 30th in Rushing Net Expected Points (NEP) per attempt with a -0.02 mark. He also had 18.32 Reception NEP on 27 targets (0.68 Reception NEP per target).