Nothing’s guaranteed in the NFL. Except money. Which is why the Pittsburgh Steelers held out for the second time in paying Le’Veon Bell.
The Pittsburgh Steelers have passed the second deadline with Le’Veon Bell and now he is going to play on the franchise tag this season. The Steelers offered around the same money per year for Bell as Todd Gurley just got. The thing that swayed Bell was the guaranteed money. Bell felt that he wanted more money guaranteed. Todd Gurley’s contract blows the Steelers offer out of the water in terms of guaranteed money. Gurley got $45 million dollars over four years in guarantees. The Le’Veon Bell camp has said that guaranteed money was the reason he did not sign with the Steelers.
This contract by Todd Gurley signals that Bell is going to get the guaranteed money that he wants in the free agent market. Bell is a better back than Gurley, but Gurley is younger and has fewer injuries on his record. This would lead me to believe that Bell and Gurley will get offered around the same amount of guaranteed money on the open market.
This may lead you to blame the Steelers. Did they not commit enough to Bell? The problem is that Bell is 26 and was injured for part of each of the first four years of Bell’s deal. He plays the running back position which is the most often injured position in football. Some have suggested that they should make it a requirement that running backs sit out for two games each year because they are so often injured and that would level the playing field. This is not to say that the ideal is that a deal got done with Bell, but instead is a scenario where with all the guaranteed money in the running back market now, you have to shy away from paying running backs.
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It won’t be possible to replace Bell right away, but there are some options the get a decent back. The Steelers staff has commented about the impressiveness of Conner and Samuels. This is an indication that the Steelers can somewhat replace Bell in-house. Starting running backs can also be gotten in the first three rounds of the draft. Take for example the Broncos taking Royce Freeman in the third round. It shows that even if the Steelers wait until the draft, that the Steelers can build a solid running back core for 2019.