Within the next nine days, Steelers running back Le’Veon Bell either will show up, or he won’t. If he does, the Steelers will have Bell to pair with AFC offensive player of the month James Conner. If he doesn’t, the Steelers will have a big decision to make in the offseason.
Although it would make sense for the Steelers to strike a wink-nod deal with Bell’s agent, Adisa Bakari, that would entail Bell not showing up and the Steelers not re-tagging him in 2019, the current thinking is that the two sides won’t be taking this path.
So either Bell will show up, get credit for the contract year, and most likely hit the open market in 2019 or he won’t, allowing the Steelers (as one league source has predicted) to tag Bell again (at the same $14.54 million franchise tender as in 2018) and trade him.
Of course, Bell would still have to agree to a trade, because he can’t be traded until he signs a tender. This means that the Steelers, after tagging Bell, would simply say, “Go find a trade partner.”
The Steelers also could choose to avoid any further headaches and not tag Bell in 2019, allowing him to leave and getting credit for the departure when calculating compensatory draft picks for 2020.
There’s still a slim possibility that the Steelers would rescind the tender before Bell can sign it. That’s highly unlikely, since the Steelers then would get nothing in return for Bell, who potentially would make a beeline for Baltimore.
Finally, it’s important to remember that the Steelers have two games in the next five days, at Baltimore on Sunday and at home against the Panthers on Thursday night. If Conner suffers a potentially season-ending injury in either of those two games, Bell would acquire plenty of leverage over the Steelers, which could suddenly be interested in offering him more than $855,000 per week to return to the roster -- and to his role as the team’s workhorse tailback for the stretch run.
By Friday, it will be known whether Conner is, or isn’t, good to go for Week 11. That will frame up the final analysis that will lead to Bell signing by next Tuesday, or not.
