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There is a scene in the movie "Heaven Can Wait" in which mogul Warren Beatty buys the Rams and installs himself as a starter. In his first training, disaffected offensive linemen let line D go unnoticed and they repeatedly smashed Beatty on the ground.
When he reports to the Steelers over the next week, Le'Veon Bell should hope that Pro Bowl goaltender David DeCastro and his Pittsburgh cohorts do not have the same home plans.
Bell, 26, has until Tuesday to show up and sign his franchise contract, otherwise he can not play this season. He apparently left Miami to return to Pittsburgh, where DeCastro's reaction was: "No matter, why waste more energy?" Coach Mike Tomlin said something similar about Bell Sunday: "We need volunteers, not hostages."
Talk about clumsy if Bell actually reports.
I was saying officially that this is the most ridiculous scheme I have ever seen and a huge miscalculation on the part of Bell and his agent Adisa Bakari. Rather than participating in the call for bids of one year, amounting to $ 14.544 million (which is not exactly a change in weight), Bell decided to give up $ 855,529 a week by not declaring. After week 9, the total loss of money is $ 7.7 million.
What made matters worse for Bell is that the longer it took, the more Steelers running back James Conner played. And Pittsburgh, 5-2-1 and leader of NFC North, survives very well. If Bell reports now, it will be an expensive backup for Conner.
Suffice it to say that this failure did not happen as planned by Bell. And his most brutal awakening could be before us.
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Bell will probably not receive the gigantic contract he expects when and if he wins a contract of free will in March. Teams will be wary of his selfishness, his history of injuries (11 games lost in career) and his problems off the field (marijuana possession and driving in 2015 resulting in a two-game suspension, A violation of it cost him three games in 2016).
As a former NFL General Manager, after all that happened with Bell, I know I would look elsewhere if I were looking for an independent agent. I would be worried about what will happen once Bell has a long-term contract. Will he be a player who refuses to play with minor pains? Could coaches and teammates ever trust a player who has shown himself so absorbed by himself?
Of course, it only takes one team to pay a lot of money to Bell, but I doubt that he will see an offer close to Todd Gurley's, in the amount of $ 14.375 million a year, guaranteed up to $ 45 million. Bell's best option might be to sign a one-year contract.
After so many miscalculations in this ill-conceived strategy, the worst thing Bell could do at this stage would be to report nothing to the Steelers. Beyond all the money he would leave for the rest of the season ($ 6.844 million), he would demonstrate to the rest of the NFL that his mentality was to avoid injury, which would further reduce his value. Merchant.
If Bell talks about it, the owner and president of the Steelers, Art Rooney, the general managers Kevin Colbert and Tomlin will not be happy to see him through the door. And if Bell or his agent gave the signal that he was going to report two weeks ago during the team's leave (as ESPN was reporting), the Steelers would feel more irritated and feel misled. . They would need to rationalize their anger about his absence by thinking of having an expensive insurance policy in case Conner would be hurt.
Rooney, Colbert and Tomlin would closely monitor Bell's level of effort. If they felt that he was not fully engaged or was not protecting himself, I would not be surprised if they suspend him for detrimental conduct to the team.
Bell can rest assured that the Steelers will not cross it or hit it with a transition label in March. Too much damage has been done. They will say good riddance and hope that Bell will receive a deal enough for Pittsburgh to receive a third-round pick.
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If I had been Bell's agent, I would have advised him to report two weeks before the regular season, to try to produce another year of 2000 yards, then to hit a free goal as a coveted 27-year free agent in 2019. have explained why the Steelers would have never tagged him at a QB number as a franchise player three times. I would have advised Bell not to alienate the Steelers; they could be the team that makes him the best long-term contract offer.
Bell's future seems rather tenuous. The Steelers will not want him to come back, and he will never recover the lost wages this season.
Jeff Diamond is a former president of the Titans and former vice president / general manager of the Vikings. He was elected executive of the year by the NFL in 1998. Diamond is currently a consultant in business and sport. He is also active in the audiovisual media and online. He makes appearances in front of groups of companies / civic and university courses on the negotiation and the sport, the businesses and the management of the sport. He is the former President and CEO of Ingram Group. Follow Jeff on Twitter: @jeffdiamondNFL.
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