Steelers General Manager Prefers Long-Term Deal with Le’Veon Bell

The Pittsburgh Steelers last month told their star running back Le’Veon Bell that they strongly desire to keep him on the team for the remainder of his NFL career, said the team’s general manager Kevin Colbert.

What that means is completing a contract extension during the offseason, rather than using the franchise tag. Colbert told the media on Thursday that the tag would never be discounted because it has been collectively bargained. However the goal of the organization is have an extension done for the long-term.

Colbert noted that the team could put the tag on Bell and still complete a long-term deal with him. Although, insisted that the long-term deal was preferable. That is the goal as well for Bell. He doesn’t want a repeat of 2017 when he missed training camp and played with a tag of $12.1 million.

This year, franchise tags are expected to fall in the range of $14.5 million. The Steelers could apply that tag anytime between February 20 and March 6. After that, they would have up to July 15 to have a contract agreed to.

When Colbert was asked if there was optimism over completing a new deal, the Steelers GM said he believed there was.

Le’Veon Bell finished the season with 1,946 total yards playing in 15 games lifting his average to 128.9 yards per game from scrimmage through his first five years in the league which is a NFL record since the merger of 1970.

Pittsburgh currently has cap space of about $7 million. Part of the evaluation of the salary cap is determining how the team can get better. Colbert admitted the Steelers were not good enough following their loss in the postseason to Jacksonville.

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The GM said the defense was under-aggressive versus the run and overaggressive against the pass. It allowed 150 yards or more on the ground in three of the team’s final six games.

Colbert also acknowledged that some players currently under contract with the Steelers may not be with the team when the 2018 season starts.

Colbert added that if the roster remains the same as 2017, then what reason is there to think things would be any different in the end. We need to be better than last year the GM said.