AROUND THE NFL
Steelers tag Bell again, but don’t feel sorry for him ... Canadian Urban re-signs with Ravens ... Panthers lock up Gano through 2021 ... Ivory to back up McCoy in Buffalo
Le’Veon Bell is correct. He has more than earned a long-term contract. His team, the Pittsburgh Steelers, admits as much.
But because the running back’s agent and the NFL club could not agree to such terms by Tuesday at 4 p.m. EST, the Steelers slapped an exclusive franchise tag on Bell for the second consecutive season.
Had the Steelers not tagged Bell again, he would have become an unrestricted free agent March 14.
Of the three tagging options, the Steelers chose the most secure variety for Bell. Barring a trade or outright release, neither of which will happen, Bell can’t play for any other team in 2018.
Teams do not have to use a tag, and those that do may use only one tag.
Across the league, four players by Tuesday received non-exclusive tags. One, Chicago Bears cornerback Kyle Fuller, received a transition tag.
Bell arguably is the NFL’s most dangerous dual-threat running back. That is, as a runner and pass receiver.
Under terms of the exclusive tag in 2017, Bell earned $12.1 million — the average of the top five salaries at his position league-wide. This season the same calculation for running backs amounts to less, $11.9 million, but players tagged for a second consecutive year may choose the higher of either that amount, or 120% of his previous year’s salary. In Bell’s case the latter is $14.5 million, so that’s what he’ll earn in 2018, an amount fully guaranteed once he signs the tag.
Tagged players have until mid-July to sign a long-term deal with his team, otherwise the window for such negotiating does not reopen until season’s end.
Last year, upon failing to reach such agreement by July 15, Bell refused to sign his tag until after summer training-camp practices concluded. Unsurprisingly Bell got off to a decidedly slow start from a production standpoint.
Bell has said he’ll sit out spring and summer practices again this year if his agent and the Steelers do not agree to a long-term deal by this year’s deadline of July 16.
Look, don’t feel sorry for Bell.
Few running backs have ever earned $26.6 million guaranteed over two seasons, as Bell now stands to do. There are far worse outcomes in NFL running-back life, no matter how much he deserves a long-term contract.
Meantime, these four players (with their tag salaries in parentheses) were slapped with a non-exclusive franchise before the NFL’s two-week window for tagging closed Tuesday at 4 p.m. EST:
DE Demarcus Lawrence,
Dallas Cowboys ($17.1 million) DE Ezekiel Ansah,
Detroit Lions ($17.1 million) S
Lamarcus Joyner, Los Angeles Rams ($11.3 million)WR
Jarvis Landry, Miami Dolphins ($16 million)
Under terms of the non-exclusive tag, the above players may sign with another team, but that club would owe his tagging team two first-round draft picks in compensation. Ouch. Never happens.
As for Fuller, under terms of his transition tag as a cornerback he would earn $13 million if he signs it. Fuller may sign a contract offer from any other team, but the Bears would have the right to match it. Should the Bears decline to do so, they’d receive nothing in compensation from the other team.
URBAN RENEWAL
Hard-luck DE Brent Urban of Mississauga, Ont., has re-signed with the Baltimore Ravens for one year. Due to become an unrestricted free agent next week, Urban will earn up to $2.35 million in 2018, according to NFL Network.
The 26-year-old appeared in only 25 of a possible 64 regular-season games for the Ravens on his four-year rookie contract, which the pro-sports contract-tracking website Spotrac.com says was worth $2.5 million.
The University of Virginia product missed his entire 2014 rookie season after tearing an ACL. Urban then missed the first two months of 2015 with a torn biceps. In his first NFL game in October 2015, Urban helped lift Baltimore to a last-play victory at Cleveland on a Monday night, by blocking a potential game-winning kick, which a Ravens player returned for the winning points.
Injury-free, Urban dominated as a starter in preseason games last summer. In 75 preseason snaps the 6-foot-7, 300-pounder forced two fumbles and registered one sack, three tackles-for-loss and seven tackles.
He had four tackles to start the regular season before suffering his third major injury in four years, in Week 3 in London, England, last September: a Lisfranc foot injury that can require anywhere from 9-15 months to heal.
Urban spent the remainder of the 2017 season on injured reserve.
The Ravens, who picked Urban 134th overall in the fourth round of the 2014 draft, clearly must like the former rep hockey player, to bring him back even for one year.
KICKERS RE-SIGNED
A day after the Atlanta Falcons re-signed 42-year-old PK
Matt Bryant to a three-year deal reportedly worth $10.5 million, the Carolina Panthers announced that its kicker, 30-year-old Graham Gano, has been re-signed through 2021.
NFL Network says his deal is worth $17 million, with $9 million guaranteed.
Gano was named to his first Pro Bowl after leading the league in field-goal percentage (96.7) in making 29-of-30.
BILLS SIGN IVORY
The Buffalo Bills have signed veteran running back Chris Ivory to back up
LeSean McCoy.
Ivory signed a two-year deal worth up to $6 million, according to NFL Network.
Ivory spent last year backing up rookie Leonard Fournette and T.J. Yeldon in Jacksonville, but barely saw the field in December and in three January playoff games. In eight NFL seasons with New Orleans, the New York Jets and Jaguars, the 29-yearold masher has rushed for 4,852 yards and 28 touchdowns.
TWO NEW REFS
Veteran NFL referees Ed
Hochuli (the older guy with the square jaw and Popeye arms) and Jeff Triplette have retired.
They’ll be replaced by former NFL back judge Shawn
Hochuli (yup, Ed’s son) and former side judge Alex
Kemp. Al Riveron, the league’s senior VP of officiating, made the announcements on Twitter.
EAGLES AND FOLES
Philadelphia reportedly wants more than a first-round draft pick for Super Bowl hero QB Nick Foles.
I’ll believe the Eagles will trade Foles before October when they announce it. With franchise QB Carson
Wentz coming off the serious knee injury (ACL plus other internal damage) he suffered in mid December, there are no guarantees he can return by the start of the regular season. In which case the Eagles would be crazy to jeopardize their 2018 season by dealing Foles, unless either they can score an enormous haul of draft picks in return, or are truly as convinced as GM
Howie Roseman tried to sound at the Scouting Combine that third-stringer Nate
Sudfeld can win games should he have to start for a while.
Count me as unconvinced on that front, too.