Bells a Jet

The injury factor is a harsh reality of life in the Nfl that can't simply be dismissed as nonsense. More players would probably receive fully guaranteed contracts if it wasn't for the risk of injury.

RB's don't appear to be as highly valued as in the past because of the risk of injury. As a result of the pounding they take RBs have the shortest careers of any Nfl position because of injury.

I don't believe I saw one RB listed in the article you provided.

Bell overestimated his value by wanting to be paid for being effective as a RB and WR from a financial point of view. Unfortunately teams didn't see it that way. However having that dual threat on the field on Sundays is a very valuable option for offenses to have.

How did Bell lose big time if he essentially received a contract with the Jets that was similar to the contract he received from the Steelers?

The main things he loss was a year of NFL production and salary for one year. He could afford both for the risk he took.

On the flip side he was able to let his body recover, heal, and save himself from another 400+ touch season playing for 14 mill. It's very likely that he wouldn't had received a large offer if he suffered any injury playing under the franchise tag again.

I understand both aspects of the situation. The Steelers need to protect themselves from player injuries and the AB types of players in the world.

Players need to get as much money as they can because they have a short period of time to earn as much money as they can.

It's business for both.

I fear for the futue of the league. The league is going to face some tough battles in the future. I would probably sell my team if I were an owner.

 

His signing bonus with pittsbrugh was 10 million. What are.you saying?

 

Rapporport said the signing bonus was only 10 million.

 

Raporport

https://www.post-gazette.com/sports...rse-than-it-first-looked/stories/201903140153

"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."

It had 45 mil in "rolling guarantees" also which Bell would have almost certainly would have gotten.


As for the Jets...

"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."



Where's all the "pay the man" crowd

 

It is funny because Antonio now has set a precedent.

We will see more of that type of thing.


And I'm already hearing people saying they are done with the NFL. Going to just watch college ball to get their kicks.

As for Bell he really didn't lose or win anything by sitting out. He wanted to see what his payday would get and now it's a closed case.

 

Do you mean we'll see more of this around the league, or just in Pittsburgh, or both?

 

It is where Bell does business. He had the offer. It was his.

 

He probably lost some money and definitely lost a year of his prime.

 

We can say that now because he's not injured. We couldn't say that if he had a career ending injury last year playing on the tag, which is the whole point of what he did. As for him losing a year of his prime, he doesn't care. This was all about $$$ and setting himself up for after football.

 

Around the league.

Not in Pittsburgh

The reason being the thing people like to criticize the Steelers for, not providing all that "guaranteed money" other teams do. They do their business different generally, which provides basically a guarantee over honoring contracts, restructuring to make players harder to cut, etc.

Really think about it. Say Brown gets 150 catches this year with 2000 receiving yards. What keeps him from doing the same thing he did to the Steelers this year to the Raiders? He got his guaranteed money. Why not just jump team to team? Contracts become meaningless.

Blonde dyed mustaches everywhere

 

Which is ridiculous. To quote an all time great football coach You "cannot live in your fears." You're a football player and were offered a very substantial amount of money to do just that. You take that risk especially since it is a relatively low risk and the money was good relative to what you're worth. It would've been a different story if the franchise tag was only guaranteeing Bell $3M, then I might take his side. I probably wouldn't risk $25M in guarantees for $3M.

Think of it as an insurance policy. A vacation one to be specific (they do have them). If you're taking your family on a $20,000 all inclusive vacation to the Caribbean during hurricane season, you might be willing spend a few hundred extra dollars to buy one. But you'd be insane to pay an extra $15,000.

Bell is just not very good with basic logic or he vastly overestimated his worth in free agency. I think it's a bit of both.

 

Here's another point......You can be severely injured outside of football too. Just ask Gabe Rivera. Or Ben Roethlisberger. Or the countless others from professional sports who have been injured or even died in freak accidents outside of the game. For that year that he was off who knows what could have happened to him personally to affect his free agency value. You could easily suffer an injury by doing something risky........like jet skiing maybe?

I guess some players just fail to larger context outside of their sport.

 

I'm not sure every team would handle it the same way Pittsburgh did.

 

I think the precedent was set way before AB. The owners also set bad precedent all the time.

I believe the future of the league is in doubt mainly because of the injuries associated with the game from pee wee football up to the NFL. As a result football at every level is facing an issue with insurance coverage for players. Former players also want to obtain benefits for life.

 

As Deon would say:

Boff

 

Do you seriously think he cares about a yr of his prime? If this was AB you'd have a point but not leveon. This was purely about money. He stated this himself "At the end of the day, I wanted to go where it would make me happy and have the guaranteed money, no matter what happens to me"

http://www.espn.com/blog/pittsburgh...so-torn-inside-leveon-bells-year-in-nfl-exile

 

Leveon quotes:

The [average per year] was fine. The three-year cash flow is fine. But you’ve got to give me some middle ground," Bell said. "[The Steelers] tried to give me no leeway on that, take it or leave it ... At the end of the day, I wanted to go where it would make me happy and have the guaranteed money, no matter what happens to me. I’ve seen what happened to [Steelers linebacker] Ryan Shazier [who might never play again after missing most of the past two seasons with a spinal injury], and I’ve seen that with my own eyes. I have to protect myself. The owners are protecting themselves, I have to do the same thing. Any other team and it would have been entirely fine. But the way [the Steelers] structure it and the way I am, I simply can’t rock with it. The way the Rams did it [with Todd Gurley's contract] was perfect, Cardinals with David Johnson, Zeke [Elliott] will probably kill."

As everyone knew it was about money and also the reports were true that he felt "disrespected" by the Steelers and their offer. I dont see him lasting past 3 years with the jets but happy for him that he got that money. Not a fan of leveon the player though he dont even love the game forreal.

http://www.espn.com/blog/pittsburgh...so-torn-inside-leveon-bells-year-in-nfl-exile

 

How many times are you going to chase your tail in a circle?

 

He wanted that upfront money. Pitt said no and had every right to. But dont tag him again and again knowing yall cant agree to the deal. Let him go and move on. My biggest problem was them keeping the tag on him.

 

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??

 

It's well documented that Bell is a dumb a$$

1) He didn't know about the season accrual until he read it on social media...... his agent didn't even know.... uh time for a new agent
2) He's concerned about injury and guaranteed money..... but plays a game of basketball while he's 'unsigned'

And it never gets talked about.... but I'm pretty sure most of those high dollar professional athletes have their own insurance policies covering various possibilities of injury, loss of income, etc.... you even have college athletes with policies to protect them until they sign their big contracts. Some 'guarantees' should be the responsibility of the player...... not ownership of the team.

Yeah real smart moves. Good riddance.

 

That piece of garbage didn’t get his 30+ million guaranteed.
He lost. You were once again incorrect.

 

I didnt say anything about losing or winning in this comment...

 

Yeah those Steelers, they're real pricks with the way they do contracts and guaranteed money.

Evidently his eyes were wide shut when he was watching Ryan Shazier.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/spor...d-ryan-shazier-salary-bonus-report/577154002/

F'ing moron.

This is waaaaaay more about Bell overestimating his value than it is guaranteed money. He's just trying to save face at this point.