In January, Steelers president Art Rooney II said that running back Le’Veon Bell is a player that the team would like to hold onto for the long term but that he wasn’t sure if an extension this offseason fit into the “jigsaw puzzle” of roster and salary cap management.
There hasn’t been room in that puzzle thus far and it doesn’t look like any will open up before Bell’s deal gets a little closer to expiring. That will be after the 2016 season and the running back said Thursday that he wants to make sure he’s physically sound after last year’s knee injury before getting too deep into talks on an extension.
“I just want to make sure my knee’s good,” Bell said, via ESPN.com. “Make sure everything’s straight before all that comes about.”
A return to health and form should only do good things for Bell’s eventual compensation in a new deal with the Steelers and certainly won’t do anything to lessen the Steelers’ desire to keep him in Pittsburgh, two things that make it hard to find much fault with Bell’s approach to his contractual future.