Pittsburgh Steelers News & Rumors

It looks like James Conner is going to move into the Steelers’ starting lineup when they face the Browns on Sunday, and the second-year running back may get a full workload.

Barring something unexpected, Le’Veon Bell is not expected to play in Week 1, Jeremy Fowler of ESPN.com reports.

Attached to a $14.5MM franchise tag he’s yet to sign, Bell remains away from the Steelers. He’d reported by this point going into last season’s opener and played in Week 1. However, the running back’s likely voyage to free agency in 2019 appears to have him operating differently going into his sixth season.

The Steelers are at a loss, but they have no plans to rescind Bell’s franchise tag, Fowler reports. No team has rescinded a tag after the start of a training camp since the 2005 Eagles, when they pulled defensive tackle Corey Simon‘s and made him a free agent.

Bell and the Steelers failed to come to an agreement at the past two franchise tag deadlines, and Bell’s agent, Adisa Bakari, said the running back is going to do what is “necessary to protect his value long-term.”

“Le’Veon has several years left in football. We know his days in Pittsburgh are precarious at best. We also know how he’s been utilized in the past by the Steelers organization,” Bakari said during an appearance on ESPN’s NFL Live, which followed a Sirius XM interview featuring the agent appearing to cite the Steelers’ old-school usage of his client as a reason Bell is staying away from the team.

“That’s nothing to say negative about the Steelers. They had one of the best players to play the position and they used him heavily for the production he can provide, but in doing so you take away from his future years.”

This puts the two-time reigning AFC North champions in a strange spot, as they’d like to have the services of their longtime running back. But the sides’ failure to agree to terms in July may have major in-season ramifications. The tougher part of Pittsburgh’s schedule looks to be the second half, with Patriots, Jaguars, Chargers and Saints games slated for November and December. But the Steelers do play the Chiefs in Week 2 and may have to do so without Bell.

A third-round pick out of Pitt last year, Conner averaged 4.5 yards per carry on 32 totes as a rookie.

Le’Veon Bell‘s usage rate over the past two seasons has dwarfed every other running back’s, making it somewhat curious the 26-year-old All-Pro would chance trying to go through another high-volume season without a long-term contract.

He may not be. Bell’s agent, Adisa Bakari, said in a Sirius XM interview Wednesday (via Ray Fittipaldo of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette) Bell is interested in making it to the 2019 free agent market without the wear and tear of another 400-touch season.

“I’m not going to discuss our plan publicly, but if you’re Kevin Colbert and you’re Mike Tomlin, and you have a once-in-a-generation type of player for one more season, what would your plan be? You can read in between those lines,” Bakari said.

Bakari’s likely hinting at the presumed plan of the Steelers running their workhorse back ragged, with his presumptive Pittsburgh departure coming in March. That said, Bell put himself in this position by not agreeing to a deal at the franchise tag deadline.

Bell led the NFL with 406 touches last season and paced the league in 2016 on a per-game basis, averaging 28 in his 12-game season — nearly five more touches per game than David Johnson, second in this category, racked up that year. However, it’s unclear how Bell and Bakari plan to coax the Steelers into limiting the sixth-year back’s workload this season if/when he returns. This sets up conflicting agendas for a team that’s running out of time in its hopes to win a Super Bowl with its historically dominant skill-position duo of Bell and Antonio Brown.

Bell said after another tag deadline came and went without a deal that he would report to the Steelers before Week 1 “unless something exceptional happens.” Bakari said today “something exceptional” has occurred. It’s unclear what, in fact, has transpired. But Bell remains estranged from his team as the league’s last holdout. Mike Tomlin said (via ohio.com’s Nate Ulrich, on Twitter) he’d cross the Bell-usage bridge when that became relevant.

Nevertheless, Bakari said the Bell camp remains intent on making this a dominant season.

“I said Le’Veon has every intention to make this the best season of his career. That has not changed,” the agent said (via Aditi Kinkhabwala of NFL.com, on Twitter). “That’s his intention, to make this the best statistical season of his career.”

The Steeler back can hold out until Week 10 before a November 13 deadline looms regarding his playing status in 2018, but he would lose $853K for every week he misses. Having accumulated 1,229 carries through five years, Bell would be an unusual free agent hoping to cash in. Teams could well view him as a diminished commodity as a free agent, which would hurt his chances of signing for Todd Gurley-type money.

Steelers running back Le’Veon Bell did not report to the team’s facility on Monday, leading to a number of statements from Pittsburgh’s decision makers.

“We are disappointed Le’Veon Bell has not signed his franchise tender and rejoined his teammates,” general manger Kevin Colbert said in a prepared statement. “Coach [Mike] Tomlin and the coaching staff will continue to focus on preparing the players on our roster for our regular season opener on Sunday against the Cleveland Browns.”

Bell is the last remaining franchise-tagged player yet to sign his tender, which will pay him $14.544MM for the 2018 campaign. The Steelers attempted to sign Bell to a long-term extension during the offseason, but those talks never led to an agreement. Recent reports indicated Bell would report to Pittsburgh on Monday, but Bell later tweeted that those reports were “fake news.”

“I hadn’t thought about it,” Tomlin said when asked if Bell would report on Wednesday (Twitter thread via Mark Kaboly of The Athletic). “We’ll see. Much like I’ve told you guys throughout this process when he gets here is when we will start quantifying all Le’Veon Bell-type things. His overall readiness, the amount of time that we have between our arrival and our next competition, etc, etc.

We will weigh all of those things at the appropriate time. Right now, we are singularly focused on the guys who are here working and have been here working and building a plan around variables that we know. That’s the appropriate thing.”

The Steelers open the season on Sunday against the division-rival Browns, and Bell would forfeit a game check if he’s not in attendance. Pittsburgh, meanwhile, will likely give second-year pro James Conner the “start” at running back against Cleveland even if Bell does report this week, according to Ed Bouchette of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. That certainly doesn’t mean Bell wouldn’t play, but it signals a confidence in Conner following a strong training camp and preseason, and possibly sends a thinly-veiled shot at Bell after an offseason of relative animosity between player and team.