In a question-and-answer session with fans Wednesday afternoon, Steelers president Art Rooney II reaffirmed the team’s desire to sign running back Le’Veon Bell to a long-term contract and talked about Bell’s role in the offense under new offensive coordinator Randy Fichtner.
The Steelers and Bell would like to come to an agreement on a new contract before Feb. 20, the first day teams can place the franchise tag on players. Bell played on the franchise tag last season, but he does not want to play on the franchise tag again.
Bell, who made $12.5 million on the one-year contract last year, would make $14.7 next season if he is tagged again. The final day to place the tag on players this year is March 6. After that, players without tags become unrestricted free agents.
“Well, every year is a new challenge,” Rooney said when he was asked about signing Bell to a long-term deal. “It’s like a jigsaw puzzle with the salary cap. We’re lucky to have three players like Ben Roethlisberger, Le’Veon Bell and Antonio Brown. They’re the kind of players that command a large salary. We’re going to do our best to make it work. That’s what you want — the best players on your team.”
Rooney took calls from as far as away as the United Kingdom. The caller from the U.K. asked what the Steelers needed to do to take the final steps toward a Super Bowl.
“We need to be more consistent on both sides of the ball,” Rooney said. “Last year there were some games where we were kind of soft against the run, and that’s not Steelers football. We have to get stronger against the run so we can put our defense in position to get after the quarterback.”
Rooney had a couple of areas in which he’d like to see the offense improve, too.
“We need to become better in the red zone,” he said. “We have a new offensive coordinator, and we’ll make a few changes to affect that. If we stay healthy we’ll be difficult to defend. We have the ability to run the ball with Le’Veon and throw the ball. We do need to get better there and hopefully we will be.”
Rooney also mentioned improving on third-down conversions as well. The Steelers were third in the NFL in third-down conversion percentage but 18th in red-zone efficiency.
Rooney hit on a few other topics, including the health of Ryan Shazier, who suffered a severe spinal cord injury Dec. 4 in Cincinnati. He said Shazier does his rehabilitation almost daily at the team’s practice facility on the South Side.
Rooney said he welcomed the news that Roethlisberger wanted to play “three or four more years” when they had a conversation after the season ended.
“He didn’t show any signs of slowing down this past season,” Rooney said. “We just have to continue to protect him and run the kind of offense we’ve been running.”
Rooney reiterated, as he did last week with reporters, that the NFL has to fix the catch rule.
“There is a pretty strong chance it will be addressed this year,” Rooney said. “Coach Tomlin is on the competition committee and he thinks there needs to be an adjustment. It needs to be simplified and err on the side of it being a catch, to be quite honest with you.”
Rooney said the team likely will play a regular-season game in Mexico within the “next couple of years.” He said he has informed the league of the Steelers’ desire to play in Mexico, and he was told the league is working on it.
Although he noted it was early in the process, Rooney said the team will be targeting defensive players in the draft.
Ray Fittipaldo: rfittipaldo@post-gazette.com and Twitter @rayfitt1.
First Published: February 14, 2018, 10:20 p.m.