No agreement between Steelers, RB Bell in sight
If Bell is willing to gamble that he won’t suffer a major injury, he is all but certain to earn a minimum of $26 million, all guaranteed, over the next two seasons.
A year ago fewer than half of the players designated with the franchise tag came to terms on long-term contracts. There are two others in addition to Bell who had the tag placed on them this year.
Washington quarterback Kirk Cousins and Los Angeles cornerback Trumaine Johnson also are trying to negotiate long-term contracts before the deadline.
Bryant wants to talk it out
Martavis Bryant and Ben Roethlisberger had six weeks to schedule a conversation in the spring. They were in the same locker room and on the same practice field for 13 practices during organized team activities (OTAs) and minicamp. They crossed paths countless times during the span and never once did they have a conversation about the comments Roethlisberger made to the PostGazette a year ago accusing Bryant of lying to him.
“I feel like we need to,” Bryanttold ESPN Thursday in Nevada, where he is training for the upcoming season. “We should have a man-to-man. Because some of the things he put out there about me, I kind of didn’t agree with how he did it. So I want to sit down and hear his own opinion, manto-man, about why he did that.”
Roethlisberger told the Post-Gazette in July 2016 that he was disappointed in Bryant for the way his second drugsuspension unfolded.
“We talked a lot, every day during his [first] suspension we talked,” Roethlisberger said. “And then, when [the second suspension] happened, we talked, as soon as the news broke I kind of asked him what happened. He said some things that were just kind of disappointing.”
Roethlisberger said Bryant lied to him, both before the suspension was announced and after.
“I just think the approach, the denial of everything. Looking me in my eye and denying everything, it’s tough. It disappoints you as a man and a guy who cared so much about him. I obviously care a lot about him as a person and a football player.”