Oct 27, 2018 6 min read

The Steelers are playing hardball with Le’Veon Bell?

As I reported earlier this week, Bell was set to rejoin the team and sign his franchise tender. The Steelers contacted his agent, Adisa Bakari, and told him in no uncertain terms that they were not only going to seek a two-week roster exemption for the running back, they also weren’t going to pay Bell his salary during that period, either.

That is their right under the terms of the NFL’s Collective Bargaining Agreement, just as it has been Bell’s right to balk at signing his franchise tag.

Now, we have yet another standoff in this situation. And this one could be the final straw.

The Steelers are happy with the way James Conner is performing in Bell’s absence. They’ve also seen the benefits of picking up $855,000 per week on their salary cap for each game Bell misses.

For a team that typically has to do some jockeying each year to get below the salary cap, that’s big. Any money not spent this season can be rolled over to next year’s cap.

After today’s game against the Browns, the Steelers will have gained an additional $6.84 million in cap space. That’s a significant amount of money.

• Will Bell choose to return to the Steelers and play this season or sit out the entire year?

At this point, it’s anyone’s best guess.

There have been some who have speculated Bell might not report until after Tuesday’s NFL trade deadline because he realizes his best chance at earning a big contract is playing for the Steelers.

He also could choose to report in two weeks, which would leave him enough time for his contract to toll for the year and then force the Steelers to make another decision at the end of the year. They could place the franchise tag on him again – with his salary increasing to more than $25 million because he would earn the average of the top five salaries in the league, regardless of position.

Or he could not report at all and gamble the Steelers won’t place the franchise tag on him again – at the same salary as this season – because they won’t want to go through this again.

The wild card in the whole thing is the Steelers could choose to use the transition tag on him. He would then only get a raise of 120 percent of his 2018 salary. The Steelers would argue that salary should only be what he actually earns this season, a number that goes down each week.

The transition tag would give the Steelers the right to match any offer Bell receives in free agency. But they could negotiate a deal with team that signs him. They could threaten to match the deal unless that team sends them, say, a second-round draft pick.

After all, they’ll have money to spare, thanks to Bell staying away.

• If you look at the AFC, there’s a clear line of delineation between the good and bad teams. You can probably pick the playoff teams right now.

New England will win the AFC East. Kansas City and the Los Angeles Chargers will come out of the AFC West. Houston holds a 1½-game lead in the AFC South and Baltimore and Pittsburgh will come out of the AFC North.

Cincinnati and Jacksonville look like they’re falling apart, and Tennessee’s offense just isn’t good enough to contend despite a very solid defense.

That’s why the Steelers need to not only beat Cleveland this week, but win next week in Baltimore as well. A loss there wouldn’t end their season. But it could make it difficult to catch the Ravens. Because of Pittsburgh’s tie against the Browns, the Steelers and Ravens are unlikely to need tiebreakers to settle things.

This week’s picks

Steelers plus 8 over Browns: The Browns forced six turnovers in the opener and still only forced a tie against the Steelers. They won the turnover battle by five and didn’t win. The Steelers have taken much better care of the ball since then. And Cleveland will have at least six rookies in the lineup for this one, having benched or traded all three players who accounted for touchdowns in the opener. The Steelers should win for the 15th consecutive time and keep the Browns winless on the road since Oct. 11, 2015 with a 31-13 win.

Panthers plus 2½ over Ravens: The Panthers are too good to be getting points at home. This should be very low scoring. The Ravens allow only 2.3 trips to the red zone per game, best in the league, while Carolina is third at 2.5. But the Ravens also average just 3.3 yards per rushing attempt. Only Arizona and Tampa Bay are worse. Cam Newton will make just enough plays with his legs for Carolina to win it outright, 16-13.

Bengals minus 3½ over Buccaneers: The Bengals didn’t show up in a 45-10 loss to Kansas City after being edged by the Steelers at home the previous week. But their offense will feast on this tasty matchup. Tampa Bay will score, as well. The difference is that Cincinnati’s biggest weakness is its run defense. And the Bucs can’t run the ball. The Bengals will generate some offense with Joe Mixon in a 34-27 win.

New Orleans minus 1 over Vikings: It’s hard to believe the Vikings are underdogs at home but the Saints are that good. And the Vikings are that banged up. It’s back-to-back road games for the Saints, who won last week in Baltimore, but they should be able to handle it in a 27-24 win.

Washington minus 1 over Giants: The Giants are a mess. Actually, Eli Manning is a mess. And earlier this week New York traded cornerback Eli Apple and run-stuffing nose tackle Damon Harrison. That’s a bad signal to the rest of the team. Washington’s a tough team to watc, but the Redskins will win, 23-17.