By: William Burns
Pittsburgh Steelers running back Le’Veon Bell has definitely stirred the pot with his decisions during his professional career. To start the 2017 NFL season, Bell skipped the entire preseason, only to show up ready to play in the regular season, where he gained 1946 yards from scrimmage, passing and rushing combined, and scored 11 touchdowns. Analysts ranked him as the second-best running back of the season.
To start the 2018 season, Bell skipped the preseason again, to no surprise. Then, Bell did not show up for the first game, or the second game or any game. Since Bell passed on signing the franchise tag agreement with the Steelers, he became ineligible to play in any game for any team this season. But why is Bell doing this? What is making him sit out an entire season?
It all started 11 months ago when Bell threatened the Steelers that if they placed a franchise tag on him, keeping him off the market in free agency, he would sit out for the entire season. Most people laughed about this because Bell was set to make a salary of $14.5 million, not many people are going to pass up that kind of cash. Well, Bell passed up on $14.5 million just to spite the Steelers for not allowing him to hit the market for free agency, which he will upon the conclusion of the 2018-2019 season unless the Steelers place yet another franchise tag on him. This scenario is extremely unlikely due to the fact that his salary would be around $25 million; this price is too much for the Steelers to spend on a running back, that is, as of right now, replaced by a better man.
The Steelers were worried in the beginning of the season that they would not have the high-powered offense that they hoped for since Bell was sitting out. These uneasy feelings came and went when Bell missed the signing deadline, but then came the realization that Bell’s replacement, James Conner, is an even better running back than Bell was. In his second season, Connor has been a very nice surprise for the Steelers through the first seven games. Connor has rushed for just one-yard shy of 600 and has added 323 yards receiving. He also has nine touchdowns already, which is just two away from Bell’s career best of 11 in a single season.
Connor is on pace to gain 2,100 yards from scrimmage and 20 touchdowns this season which is better production than Bell has ever had. He also became the first Steelers’ running back with three consecutive games of two or more touchdowns. Some fans are saying the team is better off without Bell; statistics show that since 2015 the Steelers are a more efficient offensive team without him on the field. While their record stays about the same, .697 (23-10) with Bell and .690 (14-6-1) without him, there is a noticeable difference in three other major categories
With Bell, the team averaged 23.9 points per game, 369.6 total yards of offense per game and their red zone touchdown percentage rate was 51.9 percent. These numbers don’t seem terrible until you compare them with how they are without Bell. Without Bell, the team averages 29 points per game, 413.3 total yards of offense and has a red zone touchdown percentage of 68.1 percent. Those are numbers with enough spread to believe that Bell might have actually been hindering the team, even though he was a top running back in the league.
Bell is on track to become an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season, and being just 27 years old, he expects a big contract even though he did not put on a jersey once this year. The Steelers planned on signing Bell to a new contract of $70 million for five years, averaging $14 million per year. However, the three-time Pro Bowler wanted a contract that paid him at least $17 million per year. Annoyed, Bell made good on his threat to sit out the 2018-2019 NFL season in hopes of scoring a huge contract in his free agency.
Perhaps this split between the Steelers and Bell was for the best though. Steelers fans are over Bell and onto the new kid on the block, James Connor, and Bell gets no risk of injury during the season in hopes of a huge deal. Pittsburg saved $14.5 million and they even lead the AFC North division; the situation hasn’t gone that bad at all.
