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RB Le'Veon Bell, FA - 9.6.21 Workout For Baltimore (12 Viewers)

menobrown said:
And the $18M reported on McKinnon's is just $11M and that's taking into account his 2018 base pay.

Somehow Bell's agent got people thinking NFL teams offered RB's multi year guaranteed contracts. I"m not sure any RB in the league not on a rookie deal has a guaranteed base salary in 2019 and what I mean by that is contracts that don't become guaranteed until like April 1 in 2019.

Typically the signing bonus is so big on marquee FA's that it essentially guarantees the second year to avoid cap acceleration.
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And yet the Steelers only offered a $10M signing bonus.  So, that shows how little they value him, no?  Also shows that such a small bonus DID NOT essentially guarantee the 2nd year, right?  Any cap acceleration would have been relatively minor if they decided to cut him.  No matter how we try to parse the Steelers offer, it was, AT BEST, below value, and probably insulting.  Then it was made to look even worse by Gurley’s deal, and Bells position probably hardened after he saw Donald & Mack winning by playing hardball.

 
Milkman said:
Why not just guarantee it then.......? Bell is likely playing now. No?
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No, I think he wants more guarantees than $15M added on to what he's already guaranteed this year. He thinks, and might be right, he can beat $15M guarantees next year and that was always the problematic issue in negotiations with him, the fact he already has a one year almost $15M guaranteed. Minus game checks of course.

Also I think lost in all the talk about guarantees is I'd heard before he thinks he should make more than $15M a year. And again he might be right. I think seeing Watkins get $16M a year and a slot WR get $15M a year was game changing even before the Gurley and Mack contracts. Bell likely looks at this in a manner of thinking he can give you everything as a receiver that someone like Landry can plus he can give you top notch RB production so why should he take same money? One may not agree with him but hard to argue he's dead wrong either.

Also to answer question on why NFL teams structure contracts that way. Cash flow is a part of it, not sole reason, but a part of it. When NFL teams guarantee money in a contract they either have to immediately or within 24-48 hours place those funds in escrow. When the structure calls for the contract to not guaranteed until say April 1, teams don't have to immediately put those funds in escrow.

 
Bayhawks said:
And yet the Steelers only offered a $10M signing bonus.  So, that shows how little they value him, no?  Also shows that such a small bonus DID NOT essentially guarantee the 2nd year, right?  Any cap acceleration would have been relatively minor if they decided to cut him.  No matter how we try to parse the Steelers offer, it was, AT BEST, below value, and probably insulting.  Then it was made to look even worse by Gurley’s deal, and Bells position probably hardened after he saw Donald & Mack winning by playing hardball.
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As I've already told you more times than I can count I don't buy those details and no longer wish to discuss it. You believe what you want as will I.

 
menobrown said:
No, I think he wants more guarantees than $15M added on to what he's already guaranteed this year. He thinks, and might be right, he can beat $15M guarantees next year and that was always the problematic issue in negotiations with him, the fact he already has a one year almost $15M guaranteed. Minus game checks of course.

Also I think lost in all the talk about guarantees is I'd heard before he thinks he should make more than $15M a year. And again he might be right. I think seeing Watkins get $16M a year and a slot WR get $15M a year was game changing even before the Gurley and Mack contracts. Bell likely looks at this in a manner of thinking he can give you everything as a receiver that someone like Landry can plus he can give you top notch RB production so why should he take same money? One may not agree with him but hard to argue he's dead wrong either.

Also to answer question on why NFL teams structure contracts that way. Cash flow is a part of it, not sole reason, but a part of it. When NFL teams guarantee money in a contract they either have to immediately or within 24-48 hours place those funds in escrow. When the structure calls for the contract to not guaranteed until say April 1, teams don't have to immediately put those funds in escrow.
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Good post, unfortunately these children probably think escrow is a zoo animal.

 
Bayhawks said:
And yet the Steelers only offered a $10M signing bonus.  So, that shows how little they value him, no?  Also shows that such a small bonus DID NOT essentially guarantee the 2nd year, right?  Any cap acceleration would have been relatively minor if they decided to cut him.  No matter how we try to parse the Steelers offer, it was, AT BEST, below value, and probably insulting.  Then it was made to look even worse by Gurley’s deal, and Bells position probably hardened after he saw Donald & Mack winning by playing hardball.
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Gurley's guarantee looks like it turns out to be $22 million; AB's was $19 million

 
A point that I’ve made before, but usually gets lost in the shuffle is this:  whether he’s trying to do so, or not, Bell is highlighting one way that the franchise tag can hurt the team.  Pitt has $14.5M of their cap allocated for Bell.  While that money gets freed up each week he doesn’t report, that’s of little use to Pitt.  They didn’t have that money available when they were assembling their roster & will play the season (as long as Bell is out), $14.5M behind every other team.  I would think teams might not want to do that, so maybe this will cause them to think about who they apply the tag to (at least a 2nd/3rd time) in the future.

 
Bojang0301 said:
Good post, unfortunately these children probably think escrow is a zoo animal.
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You seriously want “us children”to think that the Steelers can’t come up with $15-20M in cash to place in escrow with a few days notice?  Hell they offered Bell the $10M, and gave Vince Williams and the freakin’ PK $6M signing bonuses (each) this off-season. That’s another $12M the “poor” cash-poor Steelers could have scraped together to try to keep one of the best RBs in the league.  Good thing they decided to allocate what little cash they could come with for an average LB and a PK!?

 
Bojang0301 said:
There is no way this happened. You’re full of it. This is a franchise that extended AB, Ben, Decastro, Pouncey, Heyward and Villanueva. A franchise that had Brett Keisel, Aaron Smith, Hines Ward,Ike Taylor, Heath Miller and Troy Polamalu their whole careers and that carried James Harrison, Lawrence Timmons, Alan Fanaca, James Farrior the majority of theirs. They take care of their guys. They’ve made Bell the highest paid back this year and last, even if the guarantees were only 10m (and I doubt that that fabricated number by Ian Rapoport is correct) he would have made the first two years on the contract, AT WORST. So you have 14.5m on the franchise tag, 10m guaranteed bonuses and 30m the first two seasons with a cap hit so astronomically high there is no damn way they cut him outside of him pulling an Aaron Hernandez. Sounds like a hell of a lot of money to me, especially for a position where the Super Bowl RB’s were Jay Ajayi, Corey Clement, Rex Burkhead, Dion Lewis and James White.
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Why not just guarantee the 2nd year completely then?

 
yellowdog said:
Very little talk of Bell's previous suspensions. That has to be considered when signing him to a long term deal.
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Yeah he def deserved to take a hit in pay for that but offering him less than he was going to make on his franchise tag deal the 1st year looks like it cost the steelers their star RB for most of the season.......

 
yellowdog said:
Very little talk of Bell's previous suspensions. That has to be considered when signing him to a long term deal.
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Actually it has been talked about a lot. If he failed a test then he would get 4 games just like Edelman got this year or anyone else in the league .

 
Gopher State said:
Lots of people spent a first round pick on Bell now their season is ruined, oh well me see Bell week ten
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Perhaps not if they grabbed Conner. Until just a few days ago he could've been had with a late late pick but some people still passed b/c they had an anti handcuff stance. ?

 
I traded a good amount for him/Conner a month ago, knowing this was a possibility. Now, I'm really not sure if I can weather the storm for 10 weeks and still make th e playoffs, without some major tweaks...I'm obviously pissed but trying to move forward. 

Best case scenario is Conner at least becomes Collins-like, at most becomes Hunt. If you're holding both, we might come out of this unscathed. Don't panic yet. 

 
gethugefast1 said:
that would be showing up 3:59pm 11/17/18
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This article from NFL.com implies that the deadline is earlier than that, that it actually is week 10 of the season he has to report for. That week Steelers is on TNF so what that does for the reporting deadline I have no idea, assuming NFL.com got their stuff right in the first place

The important bit:

It is growing liklier that, unless the conversation around his compensation changes, Bell will not report to the team until Week 10, the deadline to report if the 26-year-old wishes to accrue a season toward free agency.
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Milkman said:
Jesus christ dude. Because it's an additional 800k.
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Jesus christ dude. Yes, I understand that. But he's clearly willing to lose money. I don't see why he'd cave a week later unless he gets a better deal. He's clearly willing to lose short term money for more long term money. As such, am extra couple weeks makes no real difference. 

 
Angry Beavers said:
True - but if you have to think if he's in for a penny he is in for a pound
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You do? Maybe he hopes to cause them to miss the playoffs and then come in. Maybe he's going to come back week 4 and say hey ill sign the tag now or any time before week 9 if you waive the the fines and pay my my entire contract. 

They **** slapped him yo. He might have a smaller wiener but he's slapping them back with it. 

 
Hilts said:
Jesus christ dude. Yes, I understand that. But he's clearly willing to lose money. I don't see why he'd cave a week later unless he gets a better deal. He's clearly willing to lose short term money for more long term money. As such, am extra couple weeks makes no real difference. 
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It's a 800k difference. He could be back next week......next month.......in two months. 

 
I wish him luck. I hope it all works out for him.

I own Connor in more than one league so I would like to see it work out for him on another team...

 
msommer said:
Which I believe is fine with the Steelers (that seems to be what they are telegraphing with the contract offer etc.)
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Right. I think so too. It's just a shame. Imo they owe Bell for past performance when he was criminally underpaid. I don't want to see the players or the owners win. I want to see the right thing done. 

 
Milkman said:
You do? Maybe he hopes to cause them to miss the playoffs and then come in. Maybe he's going to come back week 4 and say hey ill sign the tag now or any time before week 9 if you waive the the fines and pay my my entire contract. 
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There are no fines.  He's not under contract so he can't be fined. And they can't negotiate any payment other than what's on the Franchise tag contract, so they can't pay him more per week to make up for what he misses.

 
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