Some are calling Le'Veon Bell a genius.

[Bier Meister 1,514]

3 hours ago, Djgb13 said:

Y’all gonna watch him fight Adrian Peterson in a boxing match July 30th? I give the slight edge to AD cause he’s been practicing on his kids

But he won’t have a switch with him.

[RLLD 3,455]

On 3/14/2019 at 11:56 AM, RLLD said:

He forsook the $14m salary from last year, that money is gone, he will never see it.

Would he have still received the #35m deal, likely yes, maybe even more - assuming no injuries.

So net-net he gave up earning of $14m to avoid losing access to the eventual $35m

Le’Veon Bell admits big mistake in NFL career, regrets what happened with Pittsburgh Steelers

No sh!t eh?   Some of us understood that from the jump when he made the stupid mistake.....

 

[Reality 2,710]

Just beating a dead horse at this point, it's too bad he didn't have better representation at the time.

[Blue Horseshoe 348]

1 hour ago, Reality said:

Just beating a dead horse at this point, it's too bad he didn't have better representation at the time.

 

 

 

"According to NFL.com, the Steelers made one final offer to Bell on Monday, just hours before the NFL's 4 p.m. ET deadline for teams to negotiate a new contract with their franchise player. The offer from the Steelers was worth a total of $70 million over five years (or $14 million per season). Although the offer would have given Bell the largest multi-year contract of any running back in the NFL, he turned it down, and one reason he likely did that, is because it was nowhere near his asking price, which was reportedly in the neighborhood of $17 million per season.

One other reason Bell might have turned the deal down is because it apparently wasn't loaded with any substantial guarantees. According to NFL.com's Ian Rapoport, the contract included $33 million in guaranteed money, which was going to be paid out over the first two years. Rapoport also noted that the first three years of the deal would pay out $45 million (or $15 million per season), but didn't note if all of that money was guaranteed. As for the final two years of the deal, it seems that Bell had no guaranteed money. Of course, none of this matters now, since Bell didn't take the offer. "

 

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One of the problems here is the sports media will side with the Rooney family no matter what. They are on the powerful Network/TV committee that negotiates the big dollar TV deals, so you aren't going to get too many wholly negative stories about the Steelers too often. 

I don't think Bell was ever going to see Year 3 of that Steelers deal. It was basically a two year deal for 16.5 AAV. 

The common argument is that he lost a year of earning. Had he gotten hurt in his first or second extension year, odds are that Jets deal wouldn't be there. Too many people are comparing what Bell turned down against the aggregate of his entire proposed contract. How many NFL players truly play out an extension like that? Especially running backs? 

He also got a year off from being in basically car wreck after car wreck on the field. Maybe a year off did his health some good. 

I understand the Steelers position. A longer deal "on paper" allows the team to spread out the guaranteed money across many more years, allowing any dead money to not hit too hard in one single year. And Bell is a running back, and they are infinite replaceable. 

IMHO, this situation signals more of a need for something like The Derrick Rose Rule in the NBA. Where you have a young player that is trending at or near MVP level production in his rookie contract. This is where the NFL might benefit from NBA mechanisms, i.e. more exceptions to the cap. While the NBA would generally benefit from the common NFL non guaranteed contract standard. 

It's hard to say. In hindsight, Reggie White going to the Packers in free agency was a great decision. But he turned down the SF 49ers, who offered to make him the highest paid defender in NFL history. While they still had their dynasty core in place. But right then and there, many people thought White was insane to go to Green Bay. 

I'm hesitant to say Bell made a bad choice. His 2017 season had 945 snaps. I could see him wanting a third guaranteed year. Even as a "payoff" for basically giving the Steelers one of the best bargains in football ( 4 years of his rookie deal, at about 4.1 total)