There are 32 NFL GMs, 20-50% of which are on the hot seat on any given year and many of whom are poor at their jobs. Someone will take the gamble and give him big money.
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RB Le'Veon Bell, FA - 9.6.21 Workout For Baltimore (7 Viewers)
- Thread starter Eminence
- Start date
ghostguy123
Footballguy
Eric Wood, Joe Thomas, Kam Chancellor, Zach Miller, Ryan Shazier, Cliff Avril, D'onta Foreman (possibly)-Just off the top of my head. I'm sure there are others who weren't "big" names who found themselves released because of injuries who will never play in the NFL again.
brewer
Footballguy
It's not zero when you spend that time off the field playing pickup basketball at LA Fitness.
Fair point.
Back in the day I saw then-Braves OF David Justice playing some 3-on-3 hoops at a gym in Atlanta. He was not holding back on the dunks. Kevin Willis had to tell him to chill out.
Le'Veon Bell is none too bright if he's doing anything like what I saw.
ghostguy123
Footballguy
You should take Joe Thomas off that list.
And that's a pretty short list when you consider almost 2,000 players
Where does he go for 17+ million that they don't give him the ball and the injury risk is zero?Futeki said:
The assumption that Pittsburgh is somehow more dangerous to RB's is unlikely to hold water. Show me numbers. Playing RB hurts.
And - the emerging Conner is/was here to take some load.
In the interest of a less annoying argument - I concur he should get as much money/security etc as possible. But it looks like he or his agent was so arrogantly insistent on the last $50 that he pissed away $5000. And I blame his handler's whomever they are. Say it however you want but he failed and tried to hold Pittsburgh up.
Walk in room - get roughly $1 million per week with 20-ish weeks guaranteed with a bunch more if things work out. Haggle over 20 or 21 or 19 weeks + some performance and injury clauses - then go to bar and party like a rock star. Doing it while in Pittsburgh trying to win a Super Bowl is pure gravy.
This is why Pittsburgh will always compete for titles. Just like NE, GB and a few other teams they realize it takes . They get rid of most of the dumb-asses and rarely get caught up in significant drama. We'll take our licks replacing Ben in a few years but once we do that we'll be right back in the mix EVERY DAMN YEAR.
I would suppose that they are completely confounded by Bell's inability to actually pick a story and stick to it and just want out.
Technically 7 out of the far-smaller-than-1500 pool of players the average fantasy fan has heard of and would recognize.
When you get to the back half of an NFL roster I’m not sure we have enough info to distinguish between “player was waived with an injury settlement that ended their career” and “player was waived with an injury settlement and not signed because he wasn’t good enough to make a roster.”
TheWinz
Footballguy
You do realize that you are counting kickers, punters, clipboard holders, and guys that are backups to backups, right?
msommer
Footballguy
Grahamburn
Footballguy
It would be so Bucs to give this clown mega dollars. They DO have several large contracts they can jettison in the off-season with no cap hit. Gerald McCoy and DeSean Jackson to name a few. That's $24M right there. If they don't pick up Jameis' option there's another $21M.
One, I just threw guys out off the top of my head that I knew got hurt last year and are no longer playing. I'm sure if someone wanted to go through the entirety of the players in the NFL and cross-reference them with their injuries and current status, that info is available somewhere.
Two, picking nits with regards to guys like Chancellor is just silly. Yes, he's still on Seattle's roster, but his career is over, barring some miraculous comeback. The same is true of Shazier; he's still getting paid by the Steelers, but unfortunately, his career is likely over. The point is that there is a risk of injury by playing this game. Chancellor and Shazier happened to have contracts beyond last year when they were hurt, and (I'm presuming) some/all of those contracts were guaranteed against injury. Players like Dez, Earl Thomas, and Bell (if he had played under the 2nd franchise tag) don't have that security.
Third, by trying to only discuss career-ending injuries, we are ignoring the reality that an injury doesn't have to be career-ending to cost Bell money. For example-if Bell had played this year, and blew out his achilles last week like Dez did, (or like Foreman did at about this point last year), he would have likely seen any future contract shrink considerably. Consider the fact that no RB has returned to his previous form after an achilles tear, that Bell would be entering into his age 27 season with a destroyed achilles, and wouldn't be ready (in all likelihood) for week 1 of the 2019 season. There's no way he would have gotten a big, long-term deal in that scenario. The decision to forego the 2018 season and protect himself against injury was done to protect his shot at his one big contract with serious guaranteed money.
Two, picking nits with regards to guys like Chancellor is just silly. Yes, he's still on Seattle's roster, but his career is over, barring some miraculous comeback. The same is true of Shazier; he's still getting paid by the Steelers, but unfortunately, his career is likely over. The point is that there is a risk of injury by playing this game. Chancellor and Shazier happened to have contracts beyond last year when they were hurt, and (I'm presuming) some/all of those contracts were guaranteed against injury. Players like Dez, Earl Thomas, and Bell (if he had played under the 2nd franchise tag) don't have that security.
Third, by trying to only discuss career-ending injuries, we are ignoring the reality that an injury doesn't have to be career-ending to cost Bell money. For example-if Bell had played this year, and blew out his achilles last week like Dez did, (or like Foreman did at about this point last year), he would have likely seen any future contract shrink considerably. Consider the fact that no RB has returned to his previous form after an achilles tear, that Bell would be entering into his age 27 season with a destroyed achilles, and wouldn't be ready (in all likelihood) for week 1 of the 2019 season. There's no way he would have gotten a big, long-term deal in that scenario. The decision to forego the 2018 season and protect himself against injury was done to protect his shot at his one big contract with serious guaranteed money.
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boilerdave
Footballguy
The bad news is if he doesn’t report today I’ll know I have zero chance using him in the FF playoffs. The good news is I won’t have to come in this thread again for the rest of the season.
One
Not Allowed In Mexico
I feel strongly this thread will have an effect on Bell's outcome.Only 5 more hours to go guys! Keep up the good fight no matter which side you are on
fantasycurse42
Footballguy Jr.
He has until 4pm?
Dizzy
Footballguy
Twenty-Four Eighty-Four
Footballguy
Seriously? That's amazing, in a very sarcastic way. Literally sitting there watching the plants blow in the wind.
rafbennett
Footballguy
just here cause i own conner ?
Don't Noonan
Footballguy
can't wait for him to show up just before the dead line
Godsbrother
Footballguy
He will be an unrestricted free agent unless the Steelers throw the franchise tag on him again. They could also use the Transition Tag to retain the right of first refusal but I don't seem them doing either.
Steeler
Footballguy
Already covered - the sports media was too lazy to read the CBA (as was adisa bakari apparently).
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Godsbrother
Footballguy
The rumor is that he meant to show up today but Legarrette Blount came over and they've been smoking weed all day.
Bojang0301
Omar4Heisman
Please let this die until the offseason.
timschochet
Footballguy
I haven’t read a lot of this thread but I have to say, despite everything I’ve heard about this I’m really stunned by this news.
I don’t see how he benefits from his decisions this season in any way.
I don’t see how he benefits from his decisions this season in any way.
Ditkaless Wonders
Footballguy
Thank you Mr. Bell. You just made the last weeks of my fantasy season much more manageable.
fantasycurse42
Footballguy Jr.
Choo Choo James Conner Choo Choo
?
?
Grahamburn
Footballguy
Good for him. Stick to your guns, Lev.
Nipsey
Footballguy
This whole thing played out like when someone makes an obvious mistake but they don't want to admit it's a mistake for fear of looking stupid so they keep pretending they meant to do the original thing that was an obvious mistake. The most boneheaded move in the history of sports made exponentially worse by his silence. Screwed himself out of tens of millions of dollars, not to mention the hit to his off-field earning potential. Went from being seen as a great player/potential hall-of-famer to forever being seen as the guy who did this.
Dizzy
Footballguy
JoeSteeler
Footballguy
Leeroy Jenkins
Footballguy
Anarchy99
Footballguy
ghostguy123
Footballguy
Guessing he came to Pittsburgh to make the Steelers think he would sign, hoping they badly didn't want him to sign, hoping they would rescind the tag.
bryhamm
Footballguy
Last week it didn't sound like the Steelers or NFL would pursue it. But who knows when time comes this spring.
DocHolliday
Footballguy
Bell made a huge blunder. He is never getting that $15M back. And, he is another year older with 30 years old quickly approaching. Time to cash in is running out.
gianmarco
Footballguy
No skin in this game (not a Steelers fan, barely own Bell/Conner anywhere)....
I have no problem whatsoever with what he did. I'm glad he did it. He didn't "holdout". He wasn't under contract. He was presented an offer and he believes his worth is higher than the single year offer. He made the decision that, for him, it would be better/smarter to wait until next year and sign a long-term offer rather than risk injury, especially given that Pitt has had no issue giving him a very heavy workload for a few years now. He is under no obligation to accept that offer. It's very different than a player under contract that decides to hold out because they feel they are worth more than their current contract. Keep in mind, in general, I don't mind that either as teams typically have the advantage in most of those situations, especially with the ability to unilaterally cut a player and end contracts if they want. But still, they are still not holding up their end of a deal. In this case, Bell isn't under any contract.
They made a business decision to not want to give him a long term contract but instead offer him a one year franchise tag. He made a business decision to not accept it. Both parties are able to do what they did. Neither is right nor wrong with their decision overall.
Hopefully this will pave the way for some changes:
1) RBs, especially at the elite level, are underpaid. Yes, it's more of a plug and play position than others, but it's a punishing position with a lower shelf life and he deserves more. Sammy Watkins got a 3 year/$48M with $30M guaranteed with the Chiefs. He means much less to them than Bell does to Pitt. Tyrod Taylor is making more than Bell would have made. He's not even starting.
2) The franchise tag is turning into nonsense. And, in particular, it's ruining RBs. When they get signed to lesser rookie contracts that extend 4-5 years, then get tagged 1-2 years because the team isn't willing to commit, now you have a 27-28 yo RB that can't get his pay day anymore as a result. The tag has to either be limited to 1 year, rookie contracts need to be shortened, or an exception has to be made for a low shelf-life position like RB. Hopefully his decision can help bring up a way to change the current system.
3) Losing the ability to negotiate a contract after an early deadline -- This was a big part of why we ended up here, IMO.
I have no problem whatsoever with what he did. I'm glad he did it. He didn't "holdout". He wasn't under contract. He was presented an offer and he believes his worth is higher than the single year offer. He made the decision that, for him, it would be better/smarter to wait until next year and sign a long-term offer rather than risk injury, especially given that Pitt has had no issue giving him a very heavy workload for a few years now. He is under no obligation to accept that offer. It's very different than a player under contract that decides to hold out because they feel they are worth more than their current contract. Keep in mind, in general, I don't mind that either as teams typically have the advantage in most of those situations, especially with the ability to unilaterally cut a player and end contracts if they want. But still, they are still not holding up their end of a deal. In this case, Bell isn't under any contract.
They made a business decision to not want to give him a long term contract but instead offer him a one year franchise tag. He made a business decision to not accept it. Both parties are able to do what they did. Neither is right nor wrong with their decision overall.
Hopefully this will pave the way for some changes:
1) RBs, especially at the elite level, are underpaid. Yes, it's more of a plug and play position than others, but it's a punishing position with a lower shelf life and he deserves more. Sammy Watkins got a 3 year/$48M with $30M guaranteed with the Chiefs. He means much less to them than Bell does to Pitt. Tyrod Taylor is making more than Bell would have made. He's not even starting.
2) The franchise tag is turning into nonsense. And, in particular, it's ruining RBs. When they get signed to lesser rookie contracts that extend 4-5 years, then get tagged 1-2 years because the team isn't willing to commit, now you have a 27-28 yo RB that can't get his pay day anymore as a result. The tag has to either be limited to 1 year, rookie contracts need to be shortened, or an exception has to be made for a low shelf-life position like RB. Hopefully his decision can help bring up a way to change the current system.
3) Losing the ability to negotiate a contract after an early deadline -- This was a big part of why we ended up here, IMO.
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