Le'Veon Bell

[Oh wow]

I don't think it will effect his skills maybe his timing may be off to start the season. It will be interesting to see what happens if he comes out and puts up huge numbers and the effect that will have on running backs across the league. Will guys look at sitting out entire seasons as an option to keep their bodies fresh?

People act like Bell was horrible in 2017 and hasn’t played for 3 years.

I posted his stats for his last 4 games.There wasn’t a huge drop off in production. He didn’t have long runs but I think part of that is due to he way teams started defending him. It will be interesting seeing if teams remain disciplined and change the way they attack him... which is waiting on him to make a move instead of running hard at him and getting juked out of their jock straps.

As far as RB’s sitting out. Zeke is already rumored to sit out due to a lack of contract talks. We will see if he holds out or if it’s just tough talk.

[Moonie]

I don't think it will effect his skills maybe his timing may be off to start the season. It will be interesting to see what happens if he comes out and puts up huge numbers and the effect that will have on running backs across the league. Will guys look at sitting out entire seasons as an option to keep their bodies fresh?

Yes, I heard some may consider sitting out 2, even 3 years, to keep fresh. The "Bell Sabbatical" they call it. It may spread to other positions. QBs, Tight Ends, OLBS. Probably not kickers, but who knows?

[Oh wow]

Yes, I heard some may consider sitting out 2, even 3 years, to keep fresh. The "Bell Sabbatical" they call it. It may spread to other positions. QBs, Tight Ends, OLBS. Probably not kickers, but who knows?

We’ve already seen a few players “retire” and then come back a year later. All they really wanted was to get out of their contract and move to a new team.

I don’t know if it will become more popular but we shall see.

[Captain Lemming]

I suspect the acuity experts could come up with some plausible reasons why Bell made decisions that he believed were in his best interest. Bell wasn't as dumb or malicious as some sour Steelers fans paint him.

Bell was a good player for the Steelers. I wish Bell and the Steelers could had worked out a deal. I suspect that if the Steelers and Bell could had worked out a deal then fans wouldn't be sour towards the man. At the end of the day Bell probably didn't get the deal he expected. He did good for himself thought.

Sour grapes because he did not sign?

I have THANKED HIM for not signing the stupidly high deal we offered him.

I am ALSO the only person on this forum to my recall that publicly said here that I did not want to sign Brown to his deal......AT THE TIME he signed.

We have had the unquestionably best RB/ Wr "tandem" in the league for half a decade. Rings"? Zip.

You know who got rings since Brown and Bell have blessed our team with their HOF caliber numbers?

THEIR STEELER BACKUPS......Blount and E Sanders

AS I HAVE CONTENDED FOR YEARS......big investment in elite backs and receivers= money poorly spent.

History has proved my contention CORRECT time and time again.

[RuthlessBurgher]

My only interest in Bell this year is how he does in games vs. PIT, BAL, CIN, CLE, and NE X 2.

I want to see him run really well in weeks 2, 3, 7, 13, and 15, then get shut down in week 16.

Other than that, his performance this season doesn't mean anything at all to me.

[pittpete]

Sour grapes because he did not sign?

I have THANKED HIM for not signing the stupidly high deal we offered him.

I am ALSO the only person on this forum to my recall that publicly said here that I did not want to sign Brown to his deal......AT THE TIME he signed.

We have had the unquestionably best RB/ Wr "tandem" in the league for half a decade. Rings"? Zip.

You know who got rings since Brown and Bell have blessed our team with their HOF caliber numbers?

THEIR STEELER BACKUPS......Blount and E Sanders

AS I HAVE CONTENDED FOR YEARS......big investment in elite backs and receivers= money poorly spent.

History has proved my contention CORRECT time and time again.

In all honestly i thought it was more important that we signed Bell rather then Brown.

If i have time i'll go back to find the post....LOL

[pittpete]

I found it>> http://www.planetsteelers.com/forums...ell+sign+brown

I love AB..
If theres one knock on his game it's that he can be taken out of a game without much difficulty.
If a defense is willing to man up on him and play a safety over the top he's a very expensive decoy.
Watching the Falcons game Sunday, Julio Jones absolutely took over that game.
If i had to choose between signing Bell and giving Brown a long term mind blowing contract i'd have go with Bell.
Bell is too special of a player to let move on.
Just my opinion.

Shoe, i definitely agree that AB will be uncoverable when/if Bryant gets back?
Thing is he might be great in fantasy football, but when the smart coaches take him out of a game its up to Haley/Ben to feed the open guy.
I just dont see us being able to keep both Bell and sign Brown to a looooong lucrative deal.
Its my opinion that Bell is more important to the team in the long run.
If anything happens to Ben, or he retires in a year or two, do you see Brown being the type that will step up and become a leader?
Would he be an asset to a young QB or just worry about his stats?
We survived losing Wallace and Sanders. We seem to be a wideout manufacturing machine the last few years

[Steel Maniac]

Cap is the only one I recall saying it; he cited numbers of Super Bowl winners that didn't have an elite WR as a basis for his reasoning. But giving Bell that long term deal would have been insane; I'm glad Bell's outrageous demands (at the time) stopped us from giving him that a long term deal. Running backs are easily replaceable.

That's why Zeke and Melvin Gordon are stopping their train right now on their careers and demanding big money because they see the handwriting on the wall as far as how NFL management views the runningback position. If there was any doubt before, the Bell and Gurley situations made it plain to all.

[STH70]

People act like Bell was horrible in 2017 and hasn’t played for 3 years.

I posted his stats for his last 4 games.There wasn’t a huge drop off in production. He didn’t have long runs but I think part of that is due to he way teams started defending him.

Bell had a very good 2017 season.

But Bell has never had the great speed and ability to break long runs.
For example, In 2018 Conner had more 20+ yard runs than Bell had in 2016 AND 2017 combined.

[RuthlessBurgher]

Cap is the only one I recall saying it; he cited numbers of Super Bowl winners that didn't have an elite WR as a basis for his reasoning.

Captain Lemming was indeed the only person I remember on this forum who did not want to sign Brown to his last contract with us at the time he signed it (no 50-50 hindsight)...he was clearly pushing for us to use that $$$ to acquire an outside CB instead.

Not sure how you can recall that, though, since you did not join this forum until a couple of months after that contract was signed.

[Oh wow]

Bell had a very good 2017 season.

But Bell has never had the great speed and ability to break long runs.
For example, In 2018 Conner had more 20+ yard runs than Bell had in 2016 AND 2017 combined.

We were the number 2 seed and went 13-3 and we all know we really were a blade of grass from 14-2.

Last year we missed the playoffs.

The ypc and long runs don’t man much to me if we can’t move the chains when we really need to in crunch time.

[Buzz]

We were the number 2 seed and went 13-3 and we all know we really were a blade of grass from 14-2.

Last year we missed the playoffs.

The ypc and long runs don’t man much to me if we can’t move the chains when we really need to in crunch time.

Does it mean anything to you that Conner is better at running the ball into the end zone than Bell?

[Eich]

We were the number 2 seed and went 13-3 and we all know we really were a blade of grass from 14-2.

Last year we missed the playoffs.

The ypc and long runs don’t man much to me if we can’t move the chains when we really need to in crunch time.

You can't use that compare Bell vs. Conner.

Last year we had an abysmal kicker. We had a COMPLETELY different kicker in 2017.

Last year, we had a disgruntled AB and a team finding ways to implode and lose games they should win.

YPC might just matter when the rest of the team is running on all cylinders.

[STH70]

We were the number 2 seed and went 13-3 and we all know we really were a blade of grass from 14-2.

Last year we missed the playoffs.

The ypc and long runs don’t man much to me if we can’t move the chains when we really need to in crunch time.

I'm just saying that the way teams defend Bell has nothing to do with his lack of long runs.
He's NEVER had that ability.

Bell has a lot of excellent attributes as a RB. The speed to break long runs is NOT one of them.

[Northern_Blitz]

Does it mean anything to you that Conner is better at running the ball into the end zone than Bell?

Conners issue seems to be more about low successful run rate.

Maybe that's why we threw to many times last year.