Feb 27, 2017 5 min read

PITTSBURGH – The Steelers are making sure the Killer Bs will be in Pittsburgh in 2017 – and beyond, if things work out the way they want.

Monday, the team placed an exclusive rights franchise tender on running back Le’Veon Bell and signed wide receiver Antonio Brown to a contract extension that will keep him in Pittsburgh through 2021.

It’s the first time the Steelers have used the exclusive rights franchise tender. Under the rules of the exclusive rights franchise tender, Bell cannot negotiate an offer sheet with another team.

The Steelers will now have until July 15 to work out a long-term deal with Bell. After that, he would be forced to play the 2017 season for a one-year tender offer of around $12.5 million. The official franchise tag numbers will not be released by the league until next week when teams also are informed of what the 2017 salary cap will be.

Brown’s deal makes the All-Pro the NFL’s highest-paid wide receiver. The contract is essentially a four-year, $68-million extension. Brown was scheduled to make $4.7 million in 2017, bringing his total compensation over the next five years to $72.7 million.

His average of $17 million over the final four years of the deal is the richest given to a receiver in NFL history, surpassing the $15 million per year average the Bengals gave A.J. Green last year.

Brown, 28, has caught at least 100 passes in each of the past four seasons, matching former Indianapolis star Marvin Harrison as the only other player to accomplish that feat.

The 2010 sixth-round draft pick has caught 632 passes for 8,377 yards and 50 touchdowns in his first seven seasons.

But, he also was been publicly admonished by head coach Mike Tomlin last season, first for drawing penalties for post-touchdown celebrations, then for posting live video on social media in the moments following the team’s playoff win at Kansas City that exposed Tomlin’s post-game speech to the world.

The Steelers, however, had no issue keeping Brown and made signing him to an extension their top priority this offseason.

“Antonio is a good guy, a good person,” said Steelers’ President Art Rooney II after the season. “I enjoy our personal relationship. His teammates like to have him on the team. He is a hard worker.

“AB is a big contributor to our success, has been for several years now, and I think he’s capable of continuing to be that kind of player. I think he’s someone who wants to be a great player and works hard to be that. Hopefully, he’ll continue to evolve as a player and as a person.”

Bell, who turned 25 last week, would have become an unrestricted free agent March 9 and has had some issues both on and off the field.

But, like Brown, the Steelers believe his troubles – and injuries – are in the past.

Bell has missed five games because of suspensions in the past two seasons for violations of the NFL drug policy and also has ended each of the past three seasons injured.

In 2014, when he led the NFL in total yards from scrimmage with a team-record 2,215 yards, he suffered a sprained knee in the regular season finale against Cincinnati and was unable to play in the postseason.

In 2015, Bell torn his MCL in a midseason loss to the Bengals while being tackled by Vontaze Burfict and missed the remainder of the year.

Last season, Bell gained 1,268 yards rushing and another 616 receiving on 75 receptions and then set team playoff rushing records in each of Pittsburgh’s two playoff wins over Miami and Kansas City. He previously also set a team regular season record with 236 yards rushing in a win at Buffalo last season.

He became the first player in NFL history to average both 100 yards rushing and 50 yards receiving per game.

But he left the team’s AFC Championship loss at New England in the first quarter with a groin injury that general manager Kevin Colbert said two weeks ago was diagnosed as a sports hernia.

At that time, Colbert said surgery to repair the injury was still on the table, but Bell and the team have since decided against a surgical repair.

Minnesota’s Adrian Peterson is currently the highest-paid running back in the league. The 31-year-old Peterson is scheduled to count $18 million against the Vikings’ salary cap if he’s still on the team’s roster at the end of next week. The Vikings are considering releasing Peterson rather than pay him that salary after he appeared in just three games in 2016 because of a knee injury.

After Peterson, the money spent on running backs around the league goes down considerably. Tampa Bay’s Doug Martin and Kansas City’s Jamal Charles are scheduled to earn $7 million in 2017, while Buffalo’s LeSean McCoy, Carolina’s Jonathan Stewart and Tennessee’s DeMarco Murray all come in at $6.25 million.