Le’Veon Bell again did not report to the Steelers Wednesday, and his teammates were not happy about it.
There were those who supported him in the past who were downright angry.
“What do you do?” wondered veteran guard Ramon Foster. “Here’s a guy who doesn’t give a damn, I guess, so we’ll treat it as such. I just hate it came to this. He’s making seven times what I made, twice as much as Al [Villanueva] is making, and we’re the guys who do it for him.”
Foster is in the final year of his contract (at a salary of $2.675 million), as Bell would be if he signed his $14.55 million franchise tag.
“It’s kind of frustrating. Take some of the money [if] he’s not going to show up here and put it on top of mine. We’ll survive.”
Veteran Pro Bowl center Maurkice Pouncey, an offensive captain, also expressed his anger after predicting on Monday that Bell would report by Wednesday.
“I really thought Wednesday, trust me, I really did,’’ Pouncey said. “After a couple of text messages and knowing Le’veon as a competitor who wants to be the best in the league ... but obviously he proved all of us wrong.”
Pouncey and the others said they’ll just move on without Bell.
“We just finally accept things at some point and you’re just like, all right, if you don’t want to be here, it is what it is, hold out for 10 weeks. It’s totally fine with us. As a team, we’re totally fine. It takes 11 guys, not one.”
Foster said Bell may not realize the affect it could have on the Steelers as a team.
“In this day and age with everyone being so selfish, I don’t think it registers. I will say he’s hurt himself, but stuff like that doesn’t register with certain people.
“We’ll get over it. We’re going to roll, you know how it is. We’ll drink the Kool-Aid and roll.”
Foster, the NFL Players Association representative for the Steelers, was asked what happens if Bell stays away for a while. He loses about $856,000 for every week he does not sign his tag and report to the team. The Steelers also have the option of getting a two-week roster exemption for him when and if he does report without paying him for those two weeks.
“This is the ultimate team sport,’’ Foster said. “We get into a roll and we’re rolling with whoever is back there and we come into Week 8 and we’re 8-0 [and Bell reports], do we change up everything for him? Or do we ride it and [let him] find his way in. So there are a lot of questions behind that.”
All-Pro guard David DeCastro says Bell fooled those teammates who believed he’d report by Wednesday and begin preparations for the Steelers’ first game in Cleveland Sunday.
“I think we’re all disappointed. What’s the expression? We’re stuck with our foot in our mouths. We all thought he’d be here.”
If Bell decides to stay away the entire season, his 2018 contract would toll and he would be under the same franchise tag in 2019 unless the Steelers removed it. If he reported before the 11th week of the season, he would lose his salary for those weeks he missed but be eligible to become an unrestricted free agent in 2019.
His teammates sounded betrayed by Bell, whom they generally have been fond of before the stance he took this week.
“With this being the ultimate team sport, it kind of puts us in a bind,” said Foster, who joined Pouncey and Villanueva in texting Bell back and forth last week.
“We asked him when he was coming. We joked around with him. He hit us with an IDEK – ‘I don’t even know.’”
Pouncey told a crowd of media gathered around him after practice that the Steelers are “bigger than one player.”
“Is he a great player? Absolutely. Do we all respect him and think he’s one of the best? Absolutely. But this is a team sport and we all know that.”
It was mentioned that not having Bell would take a large weapon and security blanket away from Ben Roethlisberger. Pouncey was having none of it.
“Ben’s a Hall of Famer. He’s played in his career here with eight different running backs. So I don’t think it affects him that much. When we had DeAngelo [Williams], we had the No. 1 rushing offense in the league.
“Trust me, it’s bigger than one player.”
Pouncey predicted that Bell’s absence would not hurt the team.
“No. This team is totally fine. This team is a veteran team. We have a lot of older guys who have been through a lot of situations. You’ve seen the ups and downs we’ve been through and we’re strong, we’re strong-minded, we’re strong-willed, and we’re just ready to play football.”
McDonald limited
The Steelers’ first official practice report of the season was a healthy one.
They listed just one player on it, tight end Vance McDonald, who has a foot injury, as being “limited” in practice. That means all other players were full participants on Wednesday.
Edmunds signed
As Bell stays home, the Steelers added another running back who is familiar to at least one player on their roster.
They signed Trey Edmunds to their practice squad. He is the brother of rookie safety Terrell Edmunds, their first-round pick. Terrell and a third brother, Tremaine (Buffalo Bills), became the first siblings to be drafted in the first round by NFL teams in the same year. Both played at Virginia Tech.
Trey Edmunds signed with the New Orleans Saints as an undrafted rookie in 2017 and was recently cut by them.
The Steelers released halfback Jarvion Franklin from their practice squad.
Ed Bouchette: ebouchette@post-gazette.com and Twitter @EdBouchette.
First Published: September 5, 2018, 8:49 p.m.
Updated: September 5, 2018, 11:57 p.m.
