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The side of the Steelers' dressing room, where Maurkice Pouncey sat, was mostly silent. The Steelers were preparing for mid-week training, preparing for their next game on Monday night in Tampa. Antonio Brown had drawn a crowd of media at the other end of the room, explaining his frustrations over the team's no-win start, recognizing the distraction he had caused by tweeting suggesting he be traded. A gospel song, "The Storm is Over Now", played in the background.
For a much smaller audience, Pouncey said he was moving forward. The veteran center nodded to James Conner, the second consecutive year that was preparing nearby.
"Conner did a great job," said Pouncey, "and I would not mind having it all year long."
Pouncey was one of the locker rooms that thought Le'Veon Bell would show up before the first week, spoke publicly when he did not, and now he does not want Bell's absence to interfere. with the season. Bell still has not submitted a report or signed its tender offer of $ 14.5 million, and ESPN reported over the weekend that the Steelers were now listening to commercial offers, perhaps tired of the question of Bell's arrival.
Many league players see this as a difficult job to achieve, as Bell has not signed a contract this year and a team would drop a draft pick for, at this point, less than $ 50,000. A full season of games. "I do not see teams giving up a second-round pick, because you still have to pay the player," says a team-mate, "and why would the Steelers give him for less than that? ? " It would have to be a very good team, at the dawn of what could be a very good season, an even better season with a return of explosive. A team like … well the Steelers.
Bell's retention is very unusual. The deadline for negotiations with tagged players entering and leaving in July, league rules prevent Bell from negotiating the type of long-term extension he's looking for until the end of the season. He loses $ 855,000 for every game he misses, while the Steelers are trying to win without a third of the offensive triumvirate that should be powerful enough to compete for another title. At the heart of the problem, there is an existential question in today's NFL: what level of commitment does a team have to make to a running back who has a proven track record as a transcendent talent? Or, in short: what is Le'Veon Bell worth?
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The Steelers seem to have a talent for reacting or even flourishing among the dramas. "Not in the sense that we are looking for it," says guard Ramon Foster. "In the sense that we have experienced this before."
In a week 3 of the NFL, perhaps it will not have been surprising that the Steelers, previously without a win, take care of Buccaneers, 30 to 27. Ben Roethlisberger has exceeded 353 yards and the Steelers defense has won four points. Although the victory calms the waters, it's hard not to look at the Steelers offensive and wonder what it would look like with Bell.
Bell holds the franchise record for rushing yards in one season, with 2,215 in 2014, his second year in the league. During his five seasons in Pittsburgh, he was second in receiving (312) and receiving (2,660) for the franchise, behind Antonio Brown in both categories. He is the prototype of the modern NFL, a player with the skills to part regularly – a persistent dilemma for opposing defenses.
The Steelers were prepared to reward Bell for this special ability, negotiating a long-term deal after scoring it last year and this year – it just was not the level at which Bell thinks it's worth. NFL Network reported that the Steelers' final offer to Bell this summer was five years, or $ 70 million, with $ 10 million guaranteed (the Steelers have a long-standing policy of not offering to earn $ 45 million). dollars in the first three years. (Bell's agent, Adisa Bakari, did not respond to a request for comment, and the Steelers General Manager, Kevin Colbert, was not made available to the 'team.)
The scene was ready for a split, but most thought it would happen after this season. Bakari told SiriusXM in mid-July that Bell would join the team after training camp and before the first week, as he did last season, unless "something exceptional" happened. occurs. The best guess is that the "something exceptional" was the $ 60 million extension over four years that Todd Gurley signed with the Rams about a week later. Gurley's contract included nearly $ 22 million in fully secured collateral and a total of $ 45 million collateral blocked in March 2020.
Gurley's contract resets a market that had collapsed since Adrian Peterson and Chris Johnson signed overtime in 2011, due to a combination of factors such as the devaluation of the position in a satisfied NFL, the calm Returning young people (especially those taken in later rounds of the project) and some contracts below the market. The Devonta Freeman extension with the Falcons in 2017 averaged only $ 8.25 million per season, just over half of Bell's $ 15 million annual salary announced in 2016. Despite the label number pay for runners fall between 2017 and 1818, from $ 12.120 million to $ 11.866 million, well below the figure of $ 15.982 million for broad receivers despite the increased role of Bell and other partners (Bell's salary for the 2018 season would have been summer of $ 14.5 million) to be tagged for a second consecutive season).
It seems likely that Bell will communicate at some point in 2018, accumulating a season and thus making a third consecutive unsustainable on the franchise label. It seems certain that he will go from the front in 2019, at the age of 27, before his seventh season, with 1,635 hits, plus what he's accumulating this season for his career. What will be its value in the free market?
The MMQB interviewed leaders from five different NFL teams, representing both conferences. Interviewees hear to say that Bell's value is lower than Gurley's for reasons such as age, wear, injuries and suspensions (Bell has only played 16 games in the regular season and was suspended twice for violating the league). addiction policy). One of the leaders said he had to settle for a $ 36.9 million four-year deal between Gurley and Jerick McKinnon, adding that Gurley was younger and more explosive. The highest estimate was a $ 56 million four-year contract; this person thought that Bell had a chance to reach $ 60 million, because the highest rate of pay seems to be important to him, but it would come from incentives or bonuses rather than a base salary.
One of the team's decision makers pointed out that riders tend to get the best offer from their own team – even though McKinnon's contract is a counterpoint to that. Another echoed this feeling, saying that Bell should have taken what the Steelers offered. The disadvantage of these projections is that it is simply the way these teams perceive its absolute value, and not what the market will support. All you need is a club that has room in the salary caps and is desperately looking for a new offensive playmaker (for example, the Jets?) To give Bell what he wants. This happens every year in free will, and clearly, Bell and his agent are betting on that.
Regarding the impact of retention on Bell's free agency value, most thought it would not change anything. In the worst case, it could restrict its landing possibilities, but most executives believe that those who want to pursue it will do so without worrying. "On the team side, we still think that will be the case. [have an impact], and always tells the world that he will try to "keep players online," says one executive. "Inevitably, they get what they want because someone else is ready to act desperately."
Bakari told SiriusXM in September that one of the reasons why Bell was moving away from the fact that the Steelers would probably maximize his client's workload in what appeared to be his last season with the team, the short-term interests team against Bell's long-term career prospects. . Bell already has more than 1,600 career contacts (Gurley currently has fewer than 1,000) in a position where wear and tear is out of the question.
But there are also halfbacks who set a precedent for longer bonuses and challenged the 30-year-old cliff, as Tom Brady does for the quarterfinals after 40 years. Frank Gore recorded a 1000 yard season at age 33. Adrian Peterson, now 33, plays for Washington, fifth in the NFL, winning three games in the season and seems to be one of the strengths of his team's rebuilding offensive. Peterson does not think a mega-contract extension to go back to his seventh season is crazy – after all, he's in grade 12.
"Having a player like him, and not having paid him, is just amazing for me," says Peterson. "He deserves to be the highest paid player in the NFL."
Peterson continues, "A guy like Todd Gurley is an incredible player, do not get me wrong, but he did not do what Le'Veon Bell did. And you have an organization showing [Gurley]We have your back, we ride with you, you are our guy, that's what we feel for you. Then you have a guy [Bell]who is in a situation where he is like: "I played the franchise tag you gave me, and you will still not pay me what is due, what I feel valued "… outside too. "
We did not hear much about Bell during his stay, apart from a video on TMZ about him last week in Miami and a tweet he posted over the weekend, lamenting that "too much people take me for granted … " Monday night football Reporter Lisa Salters said that Bakari only told her that Bell was in Florida, that she worked twice a day and wanted to play football.
While Bell's teammate Peterson supports his position, Bell's leaders, agents and even teammates are left behind. In general, players support each other's business decisions, not least because careers can be short-lived and NFL contracts are not guaranteed (Bell's teammates want him to be paid for the player that it is). But instead of wondering if the team has done enough to get Bell into the building, they find it hard to understand why he is so determined to stay away that he would pay close to a million dollars per week.
"Honestly, I do not [understand his strategy] at all, and I do not really care, "says Pouncey. "If it was me in this situation, and I signed a franchise label, if I had not reached the agreement before the deadline, I would only refund at that time. And I feel like, for me, I would feel as if that was not the case at all. "
Before going to Tampa, Foster noted that two of the defensive linemen he would face on Monday night, Vinny Curry and Beau Allen, had made free will deals after winning a championship with the Eagles. "Teams that win Super Bowls, look at free agents who go to other teams," he says. "They eat, they get big contracts, other teams choose their team because they want a type of championship that has something to do with them to win the ring." raise his own stock; It was also a recognition of the speed of the championship windows, and if you have the ingredients in place, you must enjoy it.
That's why, when Bell did not present his report for the first game, as his teammates thought, they were stunned to have launched the rare reproach in the locker room. Pouncey called him "selfish," and Foster told reporters that Bell "did not care". Last week, Steelers HQ's pushback was to keep the band running and focus on the guys here. "As you see, I am very PC on this thing now," says Foster. "There was a lot of play back, so we do not leave it that way."
Foster said the reaction was on social media – "You should see my mentions," he notes – not Bell or anyone on his side. Several players said the last time they had communicated directly with Bell was in pre-season. They do not know how he sent them their public messages, although his tweet seemed like a good indication.
"I do not know if it has or not, and honestly, at this point, it does not even matter," says Pouncey. "We are in contact with Conner, we play football games and we are teamed together."
This storm is not over, but in more ways than one, the Steelers have shown they are ready to move forward. What happens next? If an exchange is a long shot, then Bell must report to Steel Headquarters by week 11 or he will be absent for the entire season. This last option seems more likely by the week, as the gap between Bell and the Steelers is widening.
But until this season, Bell has let everyone guess. Let's say he entered the Steelers locker room tomorrow, next week or before November 13th. Would his teammates welcome him?
"Yeah, because we're trying to win games," receiver Darrius Heyward-Bey said. "And he's a hell of a player. It would be stupid if someone said something different.
No one disputes it, but the problem remains: how much is a player worth?
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