Steelers’ Bell out for season after refusing to sign tag
PITTSBURGH — Le’Veon Bell won’t play in 2018.
The star running back declined to sign his one-year, $14.4-million US franchise tender with the Pittsburgh Steelers by Tuesday’s deadline, making him ineligible to suit up for the AFC North-leading Steelers or anyone else this season.
The unusual decision to sit out won’t prevent Bell from becoming a free agent next spring, when the three-time Pro Bowler hopes to cash in with a contract that would make him the highestpaid back in the NFL.
Steelers coach Mike Tomlin seemed resigned to Bell’s decision shortly before the 1 p.m. PST deadline, saying simply “so be it” when asked about the possibility of Bell never returning to the team that drafted him in the second round of the 2013 draft and helped mould him into one of the league’s top players.
“Even when we don’t understand it, we’re sensitive to it, so we’re not shocked when things happen from a business standpoint, no,” Tomlin said.
The Steelers, who have won five straight to sprint to the top of the division heading into a visit to Jacksonville on Sunday, will turn to second-year back James Conner and reserves Stevan Ridley and rookie Jaylen Samuels to help shoulder the load with Bell out of the picture.
All season Tomlin stressed he was focused on the players in the locker room and not the ones outside it and hardly seems bothered by Pittsburgh’s quest for a postseason berth without the talented 26-year-old Bell.
“That train has left the station,” Tomlin said.
The Steelers drafted Bell with the 48th overall pick in the 2013 draft, won over by his youth, size and versatility. Along with wide receiver Antonio Brown, Bell became the linchpin in which the Steelers rebuilt themselves on the fly as the franchise’s identity shifted from away from the defence that fuelled three Super Bowl appearances in six years from 2005-2010 toward an offence that ranked among the most dynamic in the league.
The makeover relied heavily on Bell, whose patient running style became his trademark.