The Pittsburgh Post Gazette's Ed Bouchette broke a story today that Le'Veon Bell's agent came to an agreement with the Steelers on a new 5-year contract prior to the July 17th deadline. When Bell's agent called to relay the news to Bell he quickly shot down the offer, even with his agent telling him to take the deal.
The story confirms an earlier headline that Bell had turned down a 5-year 60 million dollar deal that would've paid him over 12 million per season. The new knowledge that he turned it down over his agents advise certainly doesn't make Bell look any better.
From the Steelers point of view we can see why a usually tight lipped organization leaked the details of their offer a few weeks ago. Bell would have became the highest pay running back in the NFL with the second closest in terms of salary/per year being 4 million less. His franchise tag will pay him the same amount for one season, but it's hard to believe some job security would've been a bad idea for Bell.
via @EdBouchette Le'Veon Bell nixed a five-year contract his agent had agreed on https://t.co/iTpn4wugNH @Steelers #steelers @JFowlerESPN
— Gregory Smith (@GsmittySmith) August 18, 2017
Bell has started the last two seasons suspended for an arrest over marijuana, and for skipping mandated NFL drug tests. Every season he has missed games due to injury and most of them have came deep into January with the Steelers needing him the most.
Bell will certainly have plenty of questions to answer once he's finally signs his franchise tag. It's guaranteed that it will be in the next coming weeks because someone so concerned with money signs won't be forfeiting nearly 800k for each game missed during the regular season. You can take that to the bank.
