Pittsburgh Steelers’ running back Le’Veon Bell has yet to
sign his franchise tender, and might not report to the team at all.
The Le’Veon Bell roller coaster is likely to come to an end
soon in Pittsburgh, or is it? The money hungry running back has been teasing
his return over the past 10 weeks of the season. Like most, this Saga has to
come to an end eventually. The challenge is understanding when. Bell has openly
claimed he was going to return multiple times and has proven the other, so why
should we believe these reports?
According to Adam Schefter, the All-Pro running back is
unlikely to return to the team by the Tuesday deadline, forfeiting his
eligibility for the 2018 season.
The claim is more likely to be true than not only because it
is consistent with what we have seen so far from Bell and his agent. It is
clear that Bell’s free agency stock has dropped, and there has been a new
realization among Bell and his associates that next year’s franchise tag will
match the market for quarterbacks. It is incredible how little is known about
the franchise tag around the NFL. This is important because monetarily there is
a significant raise that the Steelers would owe Le’Veon if they were to tag him
again next year.
The upgrade to quarterback money almost guarantees that the
Steelers will not tag Bell and will either let him walk as an unrestricted free
agent or transition tag him, which is another mess of a situation. This reason
is paired with the fact that Bell has recently changed his social media
biographies from “Pittsburgh Steelers Running Back” to “All-Pro NFL Running
Back”. The trolling and upside-down twitter posts are now leading to the
inevitable end to this annoyance of a situation.
Bell has held out for quite some time, and it is very likely
that this situation is closed without him stepping foot in the Pittsburgh
Steelers facility. Who would have thought the talented back’s last game would
be in a loss to the Jaguars at home, in the AFC Divisional round.
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