Steelers reportedly calling Le'Veon Bell's bluff
Running back Le’Veon Bell said last week that he’d retire or hold out if the Steelers tried to stick the franchise tag on him for a second consecutive season.
According to a new report, the Steelers’ response boiled down to, “Oh yeah? $14.5 million says you won’t.”
Ian Rapoport of NFL Network said on “NFL Gameday” that the Steelers don’t believe Bell.
“They do not expect Le’Veon Bell to retire or sit out the season, but this is going to be a thing, and my understanding is the Steelers are expected to franchise tag Le’Veon Bell for a second straight season,” Rapoport said.
So it looks like game on in the fight between a 25-year-old star player who seems bent on leaving tens of millions of dollars on the tablein order to stick to his guns and keep his word, and the Steelers counting on the age-old power of the threat “take it or leave it.”
Bell, after all, had strong words for the team when making his initial demand for a higher salary than the franchise tag offers.
“I don’t necessarily care about the money aspect of it,” Bell said. “I just want to be valued where I’m at. If I am playing this game, I want to set standards for all the other running backs behind me, like Todd Gurley and Ezekiel Elliott, Melvin Gordon, guys like that. I’m a guy they can kind of look at. I feel I can do that. I’m in a position where I can do that, and I’m going to do it.”
To hear Bell tell it, you’d think he was Curt Flood making a statement over five figures and becoming a labor martyr rather than a player who will earn the average of the top five salaries at his position under the NFL’s franchise-player rule.
And would Gurley, Elliott, Gordon and their ilk truly want to follow the lead of a guy who, if he retires, might be giving up not just this year’s $14.5 million but upwards of nine figures in salaries and endorsements over the rest of his career?
That’s getting into the territory of an average multi-state lottery jackpot.
Meanwhile, it’s not like the Steelers don’t have options. Running back has become a far less big-money position in football as the league has gone to a much more pass-oriented look, and if Bell truly decides that he doesn’t want to play ball, a good draft pick can give you 80 percent of Bell’s production for 10 percent of his money.
Plus, injuries have limited Bell to just 62 of 80 possible regular-season games in his five seasons. If he gets hurt again, that’s an awful big cap hit for the Steelers to carry for a player they could replace for relative peanuts.
From @NFLGameDay: #Steelers RB Le'Veon Bell told @JFowlerESPN this week he may retire if tagged. Well… a franchise tag is likely coming. What happens next? pic.twitter.com/n2UzFTBDgF
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) January 14, 2018
Rapoport pointed out that the Steelers have a long history of not bending on money-hungry players; they released Franco Harris in 1984 when Harris tried to hold out and traded linebacker Mike Merriweather to Minnesota after he missed the 1988 season over a contract dispute.
Then again, those were different circumstances. Harris hooked on in Seattle and played just eight more games in his career, rushing for only 170 of his 12,120 overall career yards in a Seahawks uniform. Merriweather never recorded more than 3.5 sacks after leaving Pittsburgh; his career low for the Steelers was four.
Sure, this is the age of the rookie contract in pro football because of the way the collective bargaining agreement is structured, but still, you’re talking about a two-time All-Pro and three-time Pro Bowl player with nearly 8,000 yards from scrimmage in just 62 career games.
On the other hand, Bell’s 4.0 yards per carry was his worst since his rookie year, and he didn’t have any runs longer than 27 yards all season.
This will be a fantastic game of brinksmanship between the player and the team, but the Steelers are pretty sure that throwing $14.5 million at someone is a good way to make his pride yield to financial reality.
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