Jags decline to tag WR Robinson, leaving his future in doubt Steelers’ Bell has franchise tag
All-Pro RB, team haven’t reached deal
JACKSONVILLE — If Allen Robinson remains in Jacksonville, it won’t be as one of the highest-paid receivers in the league.
The Jaguars declined to use the franchise or transition tag on Robinson, stirring questions about his future. NFL teams had until Tuesday afternoon to tag pending free agents, but Jacksonville executives told Robinson long before the deadline he would not be tagged.
Had the Jags tagged Robinson, he could have signed a one-year, $15.982 million contract for 2018. Not doing so indicates how top executive Tom Coughlin and general manager Dave Caldwell feel about Robinson; they don’t believe he is worth that much money six months after reconstructive knee surgery.
Pittsburgh’s Antonio Brown ($16.775M) is scheduled to make the most of any receiver in 2018.
Jacksonville and Robinson still have a week to reach a contract agreement; the team has exclusive negotiating rights with him until March 12. If no deal is reached by then, Robinson would become an unrestricted free agent on March 14.
“I don’t really know what is going to happen,” Robinson recently said. “I know there are a lot of different scenarios. Right now, my main focus is to kind of let my agent narrow it down and for me to get back at 100 percent. That’s the main focus right now for me. I know I’ll be back at 100 percent.
Robinson had the best training camp of his career in 2017 and looked like he would be an integral part of the offense. But the 2015 Pro Bowl selection tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee on Jacksonville’s third play of last season and had surgery the following week.
Robinson is running again and closing in on a full recovery.
“He is right on schedule,” coach Doug Marrone said last week at the NFL scouting combine. “He is there every day; I see him quite a bit. I know that he has worked hard.”
If the Jaguars do move on from Robinson, they would have a huge hole to fill at the position. Marqise Lee also is a pending free agent, and the team likely will either part ways with receiver Allen Hurns or re-negotiate his contract that includes a base salary of $7 million in 2018.
Robinson has said repeatedly he wants to stay in Jacksonville, especially since he played a cheerleading role during the team’s breakthrough year and believes the Jags are poised to make another Super Bowl run in the near future.
PITTSBURGH — Le’Veon Bell keeps saying he wants to stay with the Pittsburgh Steelers. The Steelers keep saying they want to keep one of the NFL’s best running backs in the fold for years to come.
They have until July 16 to make it happen.
The Steelers placed the exclusive rights franchise tag on the two-time All-Pro for a second straight spring on Tuesday, putting Bell’s long-term status with the club up in the air.
Bell, a two-time All Pro, accounted for 1,946 total yards and 11 touchdowns for the AFC North champions in 2017. Both Bell and Steelers management said after the season they hoped to get a contract extension done quickly, but failed to do so by Tuesday’s deadline for teams to use the franchise tag.
Bell is scheduled to make $14.5 million in 2018 if he signs the franchise tender and the two sides are unable to reach an agreement on a new deal. He skipped offseason workouts and training camp last summer before signing the tender on the eve of the regular season. The absence led to a sluggish start, though he was an indispensable part of Pittsburgh’s offense once again, breaking his own club record by catching 85 passes.
The 25-year-old made the 2017 All-Pro team at the “flex” position, one he considered a tribute to his versatility. Bell has said repeatedly over the past year he believes he’s different than other backs in the league and wants to be paid accordingly. He is arguably the best receiving back in the NFL and he’s averaged nearly 25 touches a game in five seasons, though he’s only been healthy at the end of the year twice. Bell has twice been suspended by the NFL for violations of the substance abuse policy.
Bell turned down a longterm deal with the Steelers last summer and told ESPN in January he would consider retiring if the Steelers used the franchise tag on him again. He backtracked a bit during the Pro Bowl when he said he believed a new contract was in the works. It was a sentiment echoed by both Steelers president Art Rooney II and general manager Kevin Colbert early in the offseason.
Pittsburgh’s depth behind Bell is thin. James Conner carried the ball 32 times during his rookie season and the club signed Stevan Ridley at the end of the regular season as insurance. Bell tweeted Monday that regardless of the circumstances he wants to remain with the Steelers.
“Pittsburgh: the city that took in a 21-year old kid from small-town Ohio, the city I battled thru adversity in, the city that I became a man in,” Bell tweeted. “I love everything about being a Pittsburgh Steeler, and I want nothing more than to finish the rest of my career in Pitt!”