Le'Veon Bell -Farewell Miami

[Vikes_Bolts1228]

Going into 2019, who are the teams that will be looking heavily at Bell?

Philly? Denver? Indy? Seattle?

 

[Matts4313]

On 11/10/2018 at 11:16 PM, canadaluvsdallas said:

Nah he's a victim. Steelers are an organisation with rich history, championships and generally good history of treating players well.

He's one man. One player who is just looking out for himself and his money. The organisation as a whole is just held to a higher standard than how they acted in this children's episode.

You can't throw your own teammate under a bus when he negotiates for money. Keep another man's money outta your mouth. It's a golden unwritten rule as old as time.

You guys created a terrible enviroment for him, if a man refuses to play for you why do you demand until the end of time you have to keep him on your roster even if he has no benefit to you on the field ?

Calling me a troll isn't wiping away how bad your organisation and players look in this whole ordeal. It's all kinds of scummy.

The degree of maturity expected from a locker room and an old ogranization as the Steelers is NO where close you can expect to get from Bell.

It's like an adult throwing a fit at a kid for eating his ice cream.

Handled this whole ordeal like a hot mess and you best believe rest of the players are watching this in the NFL when it comes to Free Agency.

Your organisation didn't have any concern for the best interests for Bell. none. top to down. All I need to say. why should he then ?

 

Dude was a character risk. One more effe up from missing a year. They offered him the richest RB contract in history. I just can't agree with you.

 

Well, I do agree his teammates needed to STFU, but the organization did him right.

[Uncle Buck]

7 hours ago, Snake Plissken said:

Marcus Allen and Bo Jackson were pretty good.

I still shake my head every time I think about the fact that the Vikings passed on Marcus Allen for "Disco" Darren Nelson. 

[Forge]

1 hour ago, Vikes_Bolts1228 said:

Going into 2019, who are the teams that will be looking heavily at Bell?

Philly? Denver? Indy? Seattle?

 

If I'm Tampa I'm considering.

Think the Jets will be in on him.

Not feeling Denver as a match, and not Seattle. Those rbs have played very well. 

 

[BayRaider]

I think Philly and TB makes the most sense for him. Unless he just wants money, maybe NYJ can offer the most. 

[Matts4313]

6 minutes ago, BayRaider said:

I think Philly and TB makes the most sense for him. Unless he just wants money, maybe NYJ can offer the most. 

Isn't Philly broke? Last time I looked they are already going to have to cut like $20m. I don't think they can afford Bell.

[jrry32]

49 minutes ago, Matts4313 said:

Dude was a character risk. One more effe up from missing a year. They offered him the richest RB contract in history. I just can't agree with you.

 

Well, I do agree his teammates needed to STFU, but the organization did him right.

The organization did not do him right. They offered him a contract with no protections. It was a terrible deal. If he signed that, he would have been doing Pitt a favor. There's no risk in it for them.

[Matts4313]

4 minutes ago, jrry32 said:

The organization did not do him right. They offered him a contract with no protections. It was a terrible deal. If he signed that, he would have been doing Pitt a favor. There's no risk in it for them.

The last I heard is it was the largest rb contract ever and he had huge gtd money in the early part of it. Something like half of the total contract. 

 

I would feel like there is no way he gets more than that on the street when you factor in the extra $15m he just lost out on.

[BigMountainGoat]

1 hour ago, Vikes_Bolts1228 said:

Going into 2019, who are the teams that will be looking heavily at Bell?

Philly? Denver? Indy? Seattle?

 

The Bills. 2nd most cap space and in desperate need of skill players.

[43M]

34 minutes ago, jrry32 said:

The organization did not do him right. They offered him a contract with no protections. It was a terrible deal. If he signed that, he would have been doing Pitt a favor. There's no risk in it for them.

If you support him sitting out and not accepting the offer, so be it, but your constant claims that the contract he was offered was terrible and gave him no protection makes you look even more foolish than you looked when you used to defend Sam Bradford.      The contract he was offered was more than fair.   He wanted to be paid a ridiculous amount that he will not even come close to next year.     Just because they didnt want to give him the nearly $17m he wanted doesnt mean they didnt do him right....it just means they didnt value him the same way he valued himself.

And for all the talk about the Steelers "not doing him right", how about we consider how immature he acted early in his career, which prevented them from offering him a contract sooner?   Or how about we consider that Bell didnt even play all that great in 2017?     Are the Steelers just supposed to ignore this?

At this point, I dont even care.   I am just glad we can move on from him and his endless drama.     Best of luck to him.

[RandyMossIsBoss]

1 minute ago, FourThreeMafia said:

If you support him sitting out and not accepting the offer, so be it, but your constant claims that the contract he was offered was terrible and gave him no protection makes you look even more foolish than you looked when you used to defend Sam Bradford.      The contract he was offered was more than fair.   He wanted to be paid a ridiculous amount that he will not even come close to next year.     Just because they didnt want to give him the nearly $17m he wanted doesnt mean they didnt do him right....it just means they didnt value him the same way he valued himself.

And for all the talk about the Steelers "not doing him right", how about we consider how immature he acted early in his career, which prevented them from offering him a contract sooner?   Or how about we consider that Bell didnt even play all that great in 2017?     Are the Steelers just supposed to ignore this?

At this point, I dont even care.   I am just glad we can move on from him and his endless drama.     Best of luck to him.

What was the final offer? Reporters were saying in July it was $70M over 5 years with a $33M guaranteed figure, but the signing bonus was only $10M and they could theoretically only owe him that much, something along those lines. That IMO, is a terrible offer for a RB, who really only need concern themselves with the truly guaranteed cash.

 

Regardless, NFL is a business. I think it was wise for Steelers not to tie up money in a RB who has had so many touches, even more so in hindsight when Conner has proven to be very talented.

[Matts4313]

10 minutes ago, RandyMossIsBoss said:

What was the final offer? Reporters were saying in July it was $70M over 5 years with a $33M guaranteed figure, but the signing bonus was only $10M and they could theoretically only owe him that much, something along those lines. That IMO, is a terrible offer for a RB, who really only need concern themselves with the truly guaranteed cash.

 

Regardless, NFL is a business. I think it was wise for Steelers not to tie up money in a RB who has had so many touches, even more so in hindsight when Conner has proven to be very talented.

If it's $33m gtd, that's the least amount he can make. How would they only be able to pay him the signing bonus?

[43M]

10 minutes ago, RandyMossIsBoss said:

What was the final offer? Reporters were saying in July it was $70M over 5 years with a $33M guaranteed figure, but the signing bonus was only $10M and they could theoretically only owe him that much, something along those lines. That IMO, is a terrible offer for a RB, who really only need concern themselves with the truly guaranteed cash.

 

Regardless, NFL is a business. I think it was wise for Steelers not to tie up money in a RB who has had so many touches, even more so in hindsight when Conner has proven to be very talented.

A huge amount of that wouldve been paid upfront.

If you dont think the guaranteed money was good enough, fair enough....but is that the Steelers fault?     I cant see why anyone would trust Bell enough to give him an insane amount of guaranteed money.    Bell pointed out Gurley contract like that was what he deserved.   I mean, maybe strictly on the field....but Gurley has no off field issues, is younger and very arguably more talented overall.    

Again, if Bell wasnt an idiot early in his career, he probably wouldve gotten a nice extension 2 years ago.   

I dont blame Bell for holding out.   I said many times I think RBs get a raw deal in general.     I have no issue with people taking his side.   My only issue is with people acting like he is a victim and like the Steelers are the bad guys, without even considering why the Steelers are so reluctant to give Bell the type of money he wants.    He's been making bad decisions since coming into the league.   He made his own bed.    The Steelers arent obligated to pay him more than they feel comfortable giving to a guy with the red flags he has....both off the field and his injury issues.   

As you stated....its a business.

If some other teams feels comfortable giving Bell huge money with a ton guaranteed....power to them.   I dont see it....at least not nearly as much as he thinks.

[RandyMossIsBoss]

1 minute ago, Matts4313 said:

If it's $33m gtd, that's the least amount he can make. How would they only be able to pay him the signing bonus?

 

"Guaranteed" isn't actual language in the contract, it's just a figure the media/team reports. It always includes at least the signing bonus, but evidently they sometimes lump in other aspects of the contract into the "guaranteed" figure. Remember Jimmy G's contract? It was/is reported as "$75M guaranteed"... In reality, the money he was due the moment he inked it, was around $40M. That other ~35M only became guaranteed at certain points in time. That's what seems to be the case with the Steelers offer, the second and third guarantees kicked in at different dates.... So hardly "guaranteed" money going by common sense considering nothing guarantees reaching those dates, but the media/team would report that total figure. 

 

 

https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2018/07/17/report-final-leveon-bell-offer-had-10m-fully-guaranteed/

[Forge]

1 hour ago, Matts4313 said:

Isn't Philly broke? Last time I looked they are already going to have to cut like $20m. I don't think they can afford Bell.

Philly is broke in a fake way. Nick Foles counts 20.6 million against the cap next year, obviously he's not going to be on the team. That gets them out of the red with 18.8 million savings. I would assume that Jason Peters is gone, and that's another 8 million. If Agholor is healthy, they are going to cut him, and that's another 9.4 off the books (fifth year option, only guaranteed for injury). Michael Bennett shaves off another 7 million and chris long 5.3. Those three moves alone get them above 30 million in space.

They do have some guys they may want to resign - Graham is a free agent, and if they cut Bennett and Long, that's a lot to lose off that defensive front. Plus, Wentz can be extended after this season, I believe? Though that may be after next season. So they do have places to spend that money. But creative cap construction can be done. I don't know if they can afford Bell, but they could make a run for it, I suppose.

That being said, Mark Ingram would strike me as the better value for them given their money situation and I don't think he's going to be very expensive at all.