- Patrick Peterson is either off the market, or the Cardinals are orchestrating an impressive smokescreen, so cornerback-needy teams will need to look elsewhere. Some are gauging whether the Raiders would trade another Reggie McKenzie first-round pick, with Jason La Canfora of CBS Sports tweeting teams are inquiring about Gareon Conley. Janoris Jenkins is the other player contenders are monitoring, but Conley is only in his second season. He is, however, one of the many Raiders who’ve seen their stock drop under Jon Gruden. The Raiders benched Conley prior to their London game; he’d started the previous five Oakland games after missing almost all of his rookie season due to a shin injury. However, the Raiders aren’t believed to be ready to part with Conley. JLC adds the Eagles, Patriots and Steelers are among the teams exploring what it would take to land a corner.
Le’Veon Bell‘s arrival window was believed to be in between the Steelers’ Week 6 and Week 8 games. He remains away from the team, however, continuing a drama-filled year.
The Steelers have received interest from other teams regarding their holdout superstar and have barely a week left to trade him. Of course, Bell would have to show up and sign his franchise tender in order for that to occur, and he may not be interested in doing that.
With the purpose of his holdout being to maximize his 2019 free agency value, Bell does not want to be traded, Ian Rapoport of NFL.com reports (video link). The five-year veteran running back does not want to learn a new offense in a short time; he wants to return to the system he knows, deliver production down the stretch to set him up for free agency.
Some in the NFL would not be surprised if Bell shows up shortly after the 3pm Oct. 30 trade deadline, reporting to the Steelers in advance of their Week 9 game, per Rapoport.
Bell, in fact, will not report to the Steelers this week, Jim Trotter of NFL.com reports (Twitter link), giving this post-deadline arrival rumor legs.
The 26-year-old Steeler could do this and avoid being traded, and with another afternoon coming and going with Bell away from his team, a post-deadline arrival possibility increases.
Bell’s agent, Adisa Bakari, spoke to the Steelers about the specifics of a two-week roster exemption, indicating perhaps his client is moving closer to a return. Art Rooney II also doesn’t expect Bell will be traded. So, Bell may well not have a bridge team prior to free agency but instead use his presumably final Steelers stretch to finalize his offseason stock.
Running back Le’Veon Bell has still not reported to the Steelers as they begin preparations for Week 8, according to Ian Rapoport of NFL.com (Twitter link).
Bell had been expected to report to the Steelers during the club’s Week 7 bye, but he never actually showed up. The All-Pro back hasn’t been clear about his exact plans, but he’s still likely to show up at some point this season, if not this week. On Sunday, Steelers owner Art Rooney II said he didn’t expect his club to trade Bell, while Bell himself holds something of a no-trade clause, as he can simply not sign his franchise tender until the NFL’s trade deadline passes on October 30.
If Bell does report this week and sign his franchise tag, he’d be entitled to his weekly salary of $855K. However, the Steelers could potentially use a roster exemption for Bell, which would allow the club to withhold his pay. As Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk explained earlier this month, Bell and the Steelers would need to agree to a pay rate if and when Bell is placed on the exempt list. Jay Glazer of Fox Sports reported Sunday that Pittsburgh had discussed the terms of a roster exemption with Bell’s agent.
At last check, Bell hasn’t informed the Steelers of his exact plans. However, when he does show up, the Steelers are expected to use a running back tandem of both Bell and incumbent James Conner. Quarterback Ben Roethlisberger recently campaigned for Conner, who is currently second in the NFL in rushing touchdowns and sixth in rushing yards per game, to retain a role once Bell returns.
12:07pm: Jay Glazer of Fox Sports reports (via Twitter) that Bell’s agent did speak with the team about the terms of a two-week roster exemption late last week. That would seem to indicate that Bell is getting closer to reporting, but of course nothing will come easy in this never-ending drama. Glazer says that the Steelers do not want to pay Bell during the exemption period, which obviously will not sit well with Bell and his camp.
08:25am: Steelers owner Art Rooney II does not expect his team to trade running back Le’Veon Bell, per Ian Rapoport of NFL.com. Of course, the trade deadline is just nine days away, and Bell has yet to report to the Steelers — which is just one of many obstacles to a Bell trade — so Rooney’s take may be more of a comment on the reality of the situation than anything else.
Indeed, although Rooney said “I expect [Bell] to be a member of the team going forward,” Rapoport writes that Rooney is resigned to the scenario that most around the league expect to play out: Bell will report to the team sometime soon, will form a potentially formidable 1-2 punch with fellow running back James Conner, and then sign with a different club in the offseason. Conner has been thriving in Bell’s stead and is averaging 4.4 yards per rush to go along with 26 catches for 257 yards in 6 games and seven scores.
Rooney appears just as uncertain as everyone else about exactly when Bell will show up, and there are some who believe that Bell will wait until after the trade deadline if he is not dealt before then. But Rooney said there has been no discussion of adding money back to Bell’s ever-dwindling franchise tag number to convince him to report, and he added that conversations between the Steelers and Bell’s agent have been minimal.
Jason La Canfora of CBS Sports confirms that no one in the organization has any clarity as to when Bell will report, and several Steelers execs do expect him to wait until after the deadline. Although the team could agree to trade terms with another club without Bell having signed his tender, and then allow Bell to speak with the acquiring team to complete the transaction, there has been very little movement on the trade front.
The Steelers are not expecting running back Le’Veon Bell to return to the team this week, a source tells Adam Schefter of ESPN.com (on Twitter). Bell plans on suiting up for the Steelers in their Week 8 game, so it’s anyone’s guess as to why he wouldn’t formally report this week and collect a free game check.
By staying away through Week 7, Bell will forfeit a chance at earning $855K. Meanwhile, the Steelers will have to wait and see if he’ll stick to his plan and show up before the team’s game against the Browns on Sunday, Oct. 28.
Bell’s bye week paycheck was not guaranteed, since the Steelers could have used a roster exemption for Bell, allowing them to withhold his pay. But, in that instance, the two sides could have compromised on a pay rate that would have given him partial compensation during the bye. In any event, Bell has decided to extend his holdout a bit longer.
It will be interesting to see how Bell is received in the locker room once he returns and how Steelers coaches plan to use him. James Conner has been exceptional in Bell’s absence and quarterback Ben Roethlisberger has campaigned for him to retain a role even once Bell returns.
“I will push for James to get as much run as we can because we’ve seen some great things from him in all phases of football,” Roethlisberger said. “He’s picking up blitzes, he’s catching the ball, he’s running hard and making plays and playing with a passion, so we need to keep using that.”
Le’Veon Bell is not at the Steelers facility today as he continues his holdout, according to Aditi Kinkhabwala of NFL.com (Twitter link).
Bell had been expected to report to the Steelers during the club’s Week 7 bye, and there is still a possibility he could do so. As Kinkhabwala reports, Pittsburgh had meetings today, will practice Tuesday and Wednesday, and then is off until next Monday. Bell could conceivably report later this week, or wait until the Steelers begin preparations for Week 8.
If Bell does report this week and sign his franchise tag, he’d be entitled to his weekly salary of $855K. However, the Steelers could potentially use a roster exemption for Bell, which would allow the club to withhold his pay. As Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk explained earlier this month, Bell and the Steelers would need to agree to a pay rate if and when Bell is placed on the exempt list.
At last check, Bell hasn’t informed the Steelers of his exact plans. However, when he does show up, the Steelers are expected to use a running back tandem of both Bell and incumbent James Conner, tweets Ian Rapoport of NFL.com. Quarterback Ben Roethlisberger recently campaigned for Conner, who is currently second in the NFL in rushing touchdowns and fifth in rushing yards, to retain a role once Bell returns.
Despite reports that running back Le’Veon Bell would report to the Steelers in advance of their Week 7 bye, Pittsburgh has yet to hear from Bell himself and is unsure of his plans, according to Adam Schefter of ESPN.com.
Bell, of course, is holding out to express displeasure with being franchise-tagged for the second consecutive season. When he does report and sign his tender, Bell will earn a prorated portion of a one-year, $14.544MM salary. However, if Bell were to report during the Steelers’ bye week, Pittsburgh could hypothetically deploy a roster exemption, which would enable the club to withhold pay from Bell during that week, per Ian Rapoport of NFL.com (Twitter link).
Bell didn’t participate in any offseason activities with the Steelers, so he hasn’t been present with the team since January. Indeed, one Pittsburgh teammate said it would be “weird” if Bell does report this week, specifically because of Bell’s long absence, tweets Aditi Kinkhabwala of NFL.com. Last week, Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger campaigned for James Conner, who’s been filling in admirably at running back, to retain a role even once Bell returns.
“I will push for James to get as much run as we can because we’ve seen some great things from him in all phases of football,” Roethlisberger said. “He’s picking up blitzes, he’s catching the ball, he’s running hard and making plays and playing with a passion, so we need to keep using that.”
Bell could still possibly be traded, as the Steelers have reportedly been shopping him in recent weeks. However, the Eagles, who were viewed as a leading contender for Bell, don’t believe running back is a glaring area of need. If Bell doesn’t want to be dealt, he would simply wait to sign his franchise tag until after the October 30 trade deadline, as unsigned players cannot be moved, as Joel Corry of CBSSports.com tweets.
Running back Le’Veon Bell is expected to report to the Steelers during their Week 7 bye, but quarterback Ben Roethlisberger is hoping incumbent back James Conner will retain a role within the club’s offense even after Bell returns. “I will push for James to get as much run as we can because we’ve seen some great things from him in all phases of football,” Roethlisberger told Sean Gentille of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “He’s picking up blitzes, he’s catching the ball, he’s running hard and making plays and playing with a passion, so we need to keep using that.” Conner, a third-round pick in 2017, is currently fifth in the NFL in rushing attempts and seventh in rushing yards, and he’s scored five times on the ground.
Steelers wide receiver Antonio Brown is facing a pair of lawsuits stemming from an incident in April (via ESPN.com). Brown is being accused of throwing items from the balcony of a South Florida apartment which nearly hit a 2-year-old child who was outside near the pool area. For his part, Brown says the accusations are bogus. 
“It has now been made public that two lawsuits containing false claims have been filed against me,” Brown said in a statement. “The facts will soon come out that prove my innocence. My focus will remain on football and I will not let the cases serve as a distraction.”
Meanwhile, NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy says that the league is monitoring the civil suits. The NFL reserves the right to punish players even when courts find in their favor, so Brown could be subject to a suspension if the league office finds that the accusations have merit. League investigations are usually lengthy and often do not conclude before the legal process wraps up, so Brown is unlikely to face NFL discipline during the 2018 season. If anything, Brown could be looking at some sort of punishment in 2019, depending on how things play out.
This isn’t the first potential distraction that Brown has faced this year. In September, Brown missed a Steelers practice after getting into a social media spat with a former employee. Brown made reference to a trade in that exchange on Twitter, but he has since reaffirmed his desire to stay in Pittsburgh.
Brown had some down games this year (at least, by his standards) and some communication issues with Ben Roethlisberger, but everything seems to be back on track after he had six catches for 101 yards in two scores on Sunday against the Falcons. The Steelers won that game 41-17, bringing them to 2-2-1 on the year.
- While previous reports had indicated that the Eagles had given “serious consideration” to a Le’Veon Bell trade, ESPN’s Adam Schefter clarified that that wasn’t actually the case. Yahoo’s Charles Robinson echos that sentiment, writing that the Eagles hadn’t been in pursuit of the Steelers running back. However, Robinson notes that Bell “is a viable option” for Philly after they lost Jay Ajayi to a season-ending injury. For the time being, the Eagles will turn to one of Corey Clement, Wendell Smallwood, Josh Adams, and Darren Sproles (once he returns from injury).