Jan 20, 2018 5 min read

Try to imagine Jerome Bettis or Franco Harris missing all but five minutes of a walk-through the day before a playoff game and then showing up late for the game.

That’s what the Steelers’ No. 1 running back, Le’Veon Bell, reportedly did last weekend. You would think that a guy who is about to become a free agent would realize that that kind of stupidity, along with having been suspended for failing a drug test, could cost him millions of dollars.

Bell’s a great back and will sign a deal with somebody for millions in guaranteed money but his stupidity will reduce the amount of teams interested in signing him and reduce – by millions – the amount of money he gets.

The Steelers could put the franchise tag on him for the second year in a row and pay him $14.5 million for next year, which would be about 50 percent higher than the next highest-paid running back in the league. But, would that be a good idea?

Since it would be a one-year contract, the entire $14.5 million would go against the 2018 salary cap.

That’s a lot of cap space even for a guy who’s widely considered the best running back in the league.

Mike DeCourcy of the Sporting News made a good case for the Steelers letting Bell walk. He pointed out:

• Bell’s longest run from scrimmage was 27 yards, which was the second shortest long run by any full-time back in the league. Only 34-year-old Frank Gore of Indianapolis had a shorter one.
• Bell had three runs longer than 20 yards. Twenty-six backs had runs of more than 20-yards.
• His 7.7 yards per catch ranked eighth among backs who caught 50 or more passes. He tracked 10th with 4.0 yards per carry and 39 percent of his runs were for no gain or negative yards.

DeCourcy also pointed out that Bell’s straight-up running style made him ineffective in short-yardage situations.

The numbers don’t lie but neither should your eyes. If you watched the Steelers you know that Bell is a great back who makes defenders miss and helped them win a lot of games.

Bell might be a great back but that doesn’t necessarily make him a good long-term investment.

And DeAngelo Williams proved that any good back can put up big numbers in a Todd Haley offense. You could have caught half the passes thrown to Bell the last three years.

Coach Mike Tomlin hasn’t shown much of an interest in sending messages to his players or they wouldn’t be showing up late for practices and games, so don’t expect him to try to send one by letting Bell go, even if letting him go might be a good idea.

Find a good back in free agency or the draft and spread around the $14.5 million. Bell was a second-round pick and Dion Lewis, who starts for the New England Patriots today in the AFC Championship game is a fifth-rounder.

• Lots of Steelers fans got their wish when the Steelers allowed Haley’s contract to expire and promoted quarterback coach Randy Fichtner to replace him.

Good luck to Randy. All he has to do to improve on Haley is keep Ben Roethlisberger from getting sacked while throwing for 4,300 to 4,900 yards, which he’s done every year he’s played at least 15 games, and maintain Antonio Brown’s ridiculous five-year stretch with at least 100 receptions.

That streak started when Haley started coordinating the offense.

And will Haley leaving make it more or less likely that the Steelers will win 11 or more games in 2018? They’ve averaged 11 wins the last four seasons.

Of course none of that matters as long as the quarterback is happy.

• Maybe Fitchner can talk his head coach into spending a few minutes out of the hundreds of hours of practice between now and September working on a quarterback sneak. My favorite reason for not having Roethlisberger try a sneak since the first Obama administration is to prevent him from getting hurt.

I’ve been watching the Steelers since the mid-1950s. It’s possible that it happened and I missed it, but I don’t remember any Steelers quarterback ever being injured during a quarterback sneak.

I’m a little too busy too look it up, but I’d be willing to bet that it’s never happened in the 84-year history of the franchise.

Last week against the Jaguars, the Steelers decided to go for it on fourth down. If you’re reading this in the newspaper, they needed to move the ball about as far as the width of this page.

Or the width of your computer screen.

Their quarterback is 6-5, 250 pounds.

Pitchout was the call.

Fichtner has eight months to add a sneak to the playbook.

He was hired Thursday. Maybe he added it already.

• Just in case you’re thinking that the age of 31 is a good time to get rid of a former MVP and the face of the franchise, which is what the Pirates did when they traded Andrew McCutchen to the San Francisco Giants, former MVPs Dick Groat, Roberto Clemente and Willie Stargell had their best years between the ages of 31 and 35. Dave Parker slipped a little after getting fat, but hit more than 30 home runs twice after 35.

Non-MVPs Al Oliver, Andy Van Slyke and Bobby Bonilla also were in their primes after turning 31.

• Trading McCutchen and Gerrit Cole makes the Pirates a lock not to go to the World Series this year.

That’s OK. No World Series in 40 years has a nice ring to it.