While the headlines still gravitate towards the Pittsburgh Steelers and
Antonio Brown drama saga, there’s still the question of what to do about
Le’Veon Bell.
Bell sat out the entire 2018 season after he and the
Steelers could not come to an agreement in the offseason on a long-term deal.
After many speculations of when/if Bell would eventually return to the team, it
never happened. Almost no one predicted he would sit out an entire season over
a contract dispute.
In most cases when a player sits out over contract disputes,
the team and the player can still negotiate a deal while the player holds out.
This was not the case with the Steelers and Le’Veon Bell. After the July 16th
deadline to knock out a long-term contract passed, the only way Bell could play
in 2018 was on the franchise tag for $14.5 million. It didn’t matter if the two
parties could come to a handshake agreement after the fact; there was no way
Bell could play on anything else other than the franchise tag. This is very
important to understand because it’s been misinterpreted by some in the media.
So since Bell’s only option for 2018 was the franchise tag
and there was no way to get more money, him holding out was for one reason
only: to preserve his body for the 2019 offseason where he would become a free
agent.
But wait a minute. The Steelers/Bell saga might not be over
either. The Steelers won’t franchise tag Bell again because even though he did
not play a snap in 2018, with the way the franchise tag works, his salary would
get compounded on the $14.5 million he didn’t make in 2018 anyway. That would
send his salary well north at a massive salary around $25 million in 2019.
That’s just not going to happen.
With the franchise tag out of the question, it leaves the
transition tag in play. If the Steelers would apply the transition tag to Bell,
Bell’s salary for 2019 would again be $14.5 million, because the transition tag
number is either the average salary of the top-ten players at that position or
120% of the player’s previous salary, whichever is higher. Bell previously made
$12.12 million in 2017. The transition tag is non-exclusive, meaning he could
negotiate contracts with other teams, but the Steelers have the right to match
any contract offered by another team. It is essentially another version of
restricted free agency.
The biggest downfall on the Steelers side of the transition
tag is there is no compensation for if a player signs with another team, unlike
the franchise tag. So applying the transition tag is solely for trying to keep
the player on the team without having to be fully committed to the player.
In a similar fashion to the Antonio Brown saga, a player of
Bell’s talent is hard to say goodbye to, but with the distractions the
franchise tag caused in 2018, do the Steelers really want to go through
anything close to that again? There’s a good chance Bell would get an offer
from another team the Steelers would not be willing to match, especially since
the Steelers have a Pro-Bowl running back in James Conner.
Applying the transition tag to Bell would be a bit foolish
for the Steelers, especially if they are trying to incorporate change. A player
like Bell has already caused several distractions over the course of his
career, so going out of your way to try to keep him would warrant questions
from a good portion of the Steelers fan base.
Many would argue the Steelers need to address the defensive
side of the ball in 2019 and using this transition tag would be steering away
from that direction, especially because it negates the team from applying a
franchise tag to anyone else.
There are simply not enough good reasons to try to keep Bell
through the transition tag. It’s time to cut the cord and let go.
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