FLORHAM PARK, N.J. — More than 600 days will have passed from the last time Le’Veon Bell carried the football in an N.F.L. game to the first time he rushes for his new team, the Jets.

Adam Gase, the Jets’ first-year head coach, said this week that he did not expect the running back to play in the preseason. So Bell, who missed all of last season in a salary dispute with the Pittsburgh Steelers, will see his first action on Sept. 8, when the Jets play the Buffalo Bills in the season opener.

“He’s played so much football as it is, and he’s had a lot of touches over his career,” Gase said. “And he understands — we had this conversation before he started training camp — about how important it was for him to get reps in practice and how important it was for him.”

He added, “He’s been great as far as just listening to how we’re telling him he needs to go about practice, which has given us confidence to know this is the right thing for us to do with him.”