Le’Veon Bell vowed to reset the NFL’s running back market in 2019 after refusing to play for the Steelers in 2018, and he did just that.
He set it back.
The details of Bell’s four-year, $52.5 million contract with the New York Jets have been reported, and it’s even worse than it first looked.
Bell will earn $26 million in the first two years of the contract, $25 million of it guaranteed, according to NFL Network. There is no other guaranteed money in his deal.
The five-year, $70 million deal the Steelers offered him last summer that he turned down included $33 million in the first two years, $20.5 million of that guaranteed in the first year, as reported by CBS’ Jason LaCanfora.
Thus, Bell may have set another NFL precedent – the first player in history to hold out an entire season for less money.
The Jets reportedly were the only ones bidding on Bell, and he had nowhere else to turn when he accepted their deal Monday night. It is far below the annual $17 million he once predicted he would get and not even close to the virtual guarantees he would have received from the Steelers.
NFL Network reported that Bell received only an $8 million signing bonus from the Jets with a total take of just $14.5 million in the first year. Had he accepted the Steelers’ offer, he would have earned more than double that by the end of 2019.
Bell also lost a full year of his NFL career. The Steelers play at the New York Jets this year.
First Published: March 14, 2019, 7:50 p.m.
