I get all of that. But here’s my point, and it’s based on the assumption that if they’d offered $30M truly guaranteed, Bell would have accepted.Because to the Steelers, it's not a negotiable rule. They don't do it, period. Just like for other than QBs, they don't renegotiate deals for players until they have 1 year left on their contract. The players know it, too. It's the same rule that was applied to Antonio Brown and to Hines Ward before him. And you know what? It's worked very, very well for a long time.
And again, he had served a suspension in 2015 and 2016. What in the world would make a guy like that worth a $30M guarantee the following offseason? C'mon now... look beyond the numbers and see the issues he had and the REASONS for decisions.
The Steelers created this rule for themselves. You believe that they would absolutely have paid the rolling guarantees for year 2, without question. That means the only reason this happened is because the Steelers made up a rule for themselves. None of what we’ve discussed in the last who knows how many pages matters: it’s not about the value of RBs, it’s not about the Steelers making sure they keep who they want, it’s not about the relative value of Conner at his rookie deal vs Bell on a big deal, it’s not about the franchise tag, it’s not about Bell being secretive about his plans-none of that matters. If the Steelers didn’t have this self-imposed rule (which is meaningless in this case, because they absolutely were going to pay out the 2nd year rolling guarantees), this wouldn’t have happened.