Le’Veon Bell sacrificed millions more and one year of his NFL career for this?
Bell, 27, came to terms with the New York Jets early Wednesday morning on a four-year deal reportedly worth $52.5 million that includes $35 million in guaranteed money.
Last year, the All-Pro halfback turned down the Steelers’ offer for a reported five years and $70 million with $33 million of that guaranteed in the first two years. He would have earned $45 million over three. He also then declined to sign their franchise tag that would have paid him $14.54 million guaranteed last season.
Instead, Bell sat out the entire 2018 season in hopes that he would hit it big as a free agent this year. He did hit it big but not nearly as much as he expected, not even as much had he taken the Steelers’ offer last summer.
“I’m back in the green baby, let’s get it,” Bell, who played for the green-clad Michigan State Spartans, wrote on Twitter shortly after midnight.
That’s certainly plenty of green cash the green and white Jets doled out to him. But last year, Bell scoffed at the prospect of playing for the Jets at a much higher number. Someone pleaded to Bell in February 2018 on Twitter, saying “we’ll give you $60 million in cash if you come play for” the Jets. Bell’s response was “not ain’t enough to come run with the Jets.”
Now he’ll do it for $8 million less over the life of the contract after giving up much more and a full year of his playing career.
So sometime after 4 p.m. Wednesday, when free-agent signings and trades can actually become official, the Steelers will have lost Bell and wide receiver Antonio Brown, their two superstars. They also lost from that offense longtime starting right tackle Marcus Gilbert and tight end Jesse James. They traded Brown to Oakland for draft picks in the third and fifth rounds, and traded Gilbert to Arizona for a sixth-round choice. James agreed to a contract as a UFA with Detroit.
The Steelers, too, will have signed their first unrestricted free agent, cornerback Steven Nelson from the Kansas City Chiefs, for three years and $25.5 million. They came to agreement with him on Tuesday. Before two of their own players could become free agents, they signed guard Ramon Foster last week and No. 3 outside linebacker Anthony Chickillo on Tuesday.
More comings, goings and stayings, no doubt, will occur.
The next big news is the anticipated new contract for quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, who has one year left on his deal. The Steelers have been negotiating with his agent, Ryan Tollner, on a new contract and they’d like to get it done before his $5 million roster bonus kicks in Friday.
If so, they could add that bonus to whatever signing bonus they give Roethlisberger in order to spread out the cap hit over the life of the contract rather than have all that $5 million count this year.
It’s possible that whatever contract Roethlisberger signs will reduce his salary cap hit this year from $23.2 million by packing the new deal with a large signing bonus that prorates for cap purposes over the life of the contract. For example, a $40 million signing bonus over four years would count $10 million annually against the cap. He would still count another $6.2 million this year from past bonuses plus whatever new salary he receives in 2019 as part of a new contract.
Those, however, are examples and not projections.
First Published: March 13, 2019, 5:01 a.m.
