Can’t let Bell walk; let him run wild on offense

Didn’t we have this conversation already? We did, you know. A year ago. The topic was Antonio Brown and whether the Steelers should sign him to a monster contract. Dissenters screamed.

Youdon’t spend that kind of cash ona wide receiver! He’s a nuisance! Putthe money in the defense!

The rest of us shook our heads in disbelief and clung to the obvious: Brown is a great player. A rare player. Of course you pay him. He wins games. And so they did.

A year later, only the name has changed.

Of course you pay Le’Veon Bell. At the very least, you slap him with

a $14.5 million franchise tag. You do not let a soon-to-be26-year-old superstar walk out the door. Not when your window remains wide open. This isn’t Mike Wallace we’re talking about here. This isn’t Santonio Holmes.

Thisis a rare player. This is aplayer who easily leads the NFL in scrimmage yards per gamesince he came into the league in 2013. A player who reached7,500 scrimmage yards faster than all but one manin NFL history — and tha tman was Eric Dickerson (both took only 59 games).

This is a player who received the ball on 40 percent of Steelers plays this season and accounted for 32 percent of their yards.

Let him walk? Come on now. That’s crazy talk, especially if your rationale refers to Bell skipping training camp, tweeting out a guarantee the morning of the playoff game or missing most of the walk-through a day earlier.

Bell was background noise compared with the rest of the crap that went on with this team. Besides, he says he had personal reasons for missing the walkthrough and notified coach Mike Tomlin. So it’s not as if he just blew it off. And he showed up ready for the game, which is more than I can say for several of his defensive counterparts.

The Steelers have put up with worse in order to retain a star player.

Thereare legitimate concerns in giving Bell a contract that pays him, say, $15 million peryear. Concerns that make him different than A.B.

Bell has suspension and injury histories. He has endured a historically heavy workload. Clearly, there is risk. But if you’re one who believes running backs can be found anywhere (I’m not), why worry about losing him? Just pick somebody off the scrap heap, right?

My gut tells me the Steelers will (and should) reward Bell for a full season in which he brought it every down. He looked plenty strong at the end. In the New England and Jacksonville games, he racked up 320 total yards and three touchdowns. He makes Ben Roethlisberger’s life much easier, in so many ways.

Will the workload wear down Bell? Some might say it already has, seeing as he was nearly 1 yard lighter on his per-carry average. I say he was rusty after missing camp and was ignored in some games. He still averaged 4 yards a carry, same as Shady McCoy, better than Leonard Fournette.

You can recite numbers of running backs who’ve worn down in their late 20s. I can show you a bunch — Adrian Peterson, Tony Dorsett, Curtis Martin, Jerome Bettis, McCoy, Dickerson, Franco Harris — who were plenty productive at least through their age 29 season.

Nearly all of the Steelers offense is locked into multiyear deals. Nearly all of their key defensive players are signed. The salary cap is going up by about $10 million this year. I wouldn’t cede to Bell’s every demand — I wouldn’t go above $15 million per season — but I certainly would call his bluff on retiring if he’s tagged.

It’s true, teams win Super Bowls without star running backs. They also win without star quarterbacks (see: Denver Broncos, decrepit Peyton Manning), star receivers, great lines, great secondaries, etc.

That’s a weak argument. You keep your best players in their prime, unless their demands are ridiculous.

This offense was the only reason the Steelers had a chance to advance. The sheer individual brilliance on that side of the ball required only an average defense (sadly, it fell far below that against the Jaguars).

Yes, you could use Bell’s money to try to improve the defense. But what will you have done to the offense?

“They may have to give a little,” Bell told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette at the Pro Bowl. “I might have to give a little.”

The Steelers can give a little on the money and raise it. Bell can give a little on terms. Make him a solid four-year offer that takes him through his age 29 season. If he starts talking crazy, rip it off the table and replace it with a tag. Use your leverage to keep him here next season.

You don’t let greatness walk away at age 26.

You just don’t.