Pittsburgh Steelers failed by not signing anyone
Yes, the Pittsburgh Steelers biggest concern was signing Le’Veon Bell, but once that wasn’t going to happen, they needed to move on.
Not by getting rid of the All-Pro running back, but by giving money to others who need it. For example, Alejandro Villanueva, who will reportedly not participate in training camp. And as a team who’s on the verge of making a Super Bowl run, these kinds of distractions are not good for the atmosphere.
Getting Bell was priority one, but at some point, Pittsburgh needed to realize a deal wasn’t going to get done. Le’Veon was not budging when it came to guaranteed money, and the Steelers are historically known for not handing it out no matter who you are.
So, instead of fighting it out to get nowhere, they should’ve ended negotiations early and began discussing options for their left tackle and maybe Stephon Tuitt or Ross Cockrell. By no means, though, should Bell have been the only player looking for an extension on the deadline.
With almost $15 million in cap space, the Steelers had options to get at least one deal done this summer. It was right to put Bell first, but the same argument was happening all summer – Bell wanted secure money, and the Steelers weren’t willing to give it to him.
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When you offer a running back over $12 million a year for five years, and he says no, chances are you aren’t signing him. Well, once Pittsburgh realized that they should’ve tossed an extension towards Villanueva and had him sign instead of play under the exclusive rights tender for $615,000.
Now, the Steelers need to head into next offseason with 42 names to possibly resign, including Cockrell, Tuitt, Villanueva, Bell, Eli Rogers, Chris Boswell and plenty of others. All of which they need to resign with only $31,937,575.
It isn’t going to be impossible, but it’s a strong possibility that Bell signs another franchise tag worth over $14 million. Now, they need to focus on the rest of the team with bare minimum money to work with and too many names to keep on the roster.
The Steelers need to get something done with someone this offseason. The only thing they couldn’t do was not sign anyone and head to the 2018 offseason with too many names and not enough money.
Well, it’s exactly what they did.
It’s not that Pittsburgh has failed the offseason. In fact, they’re having one of the best offseasons in the NFL. The only issue was that they needed to make a move before the deadline and they failed to do so.
Next year is going to be tough. Pittsburgh is now in a hole and needs to find a way to come out of it before one of the best team’s in the NFL deteriorates.
It’s a long way until the 2018 offseason. But for the Steelers, they put themselves in a predicament where they need to think now.
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It won’t affect their Super Bowl chances, but the Pittsburgh Steelers certainly didn’t help themselves by not signing anyone by the deadline.