It’s all history by now but as the saying goes, history repeats itself. With Le’Veon Bell certain to hold out, and now claiming retirement, if a long-term deal doesn’t get done, it’s fair to wonder if the Pittsburgh Steelers will handle Bell the same way as they did at the beginning of last year.
We bring this up after DeAngelo Williams made some interesting claims on Twitter a short time ago. Responding to a tweet about Bell’s lack of production the first three weeks of the regular season, Williams said that was part of Todd Haley’s “punishment package.” Here’s the original tweet.
That was the punishment package that Todd Haley put into place but I know u have to report the stats https://t.co/Kdo2aUdw2B
— DeAngelo Williams (@DeAngeloRB) March 5, 2018
Williams followed up on what exactly that meant.
He gave him less and took him off the field with the five wide looks https://t.co/zR0TBALEfn
— DeAngelo Williams (@DeAngeloRB) March 5, 2018
Fact-checking him, in two of those three weeks, Bell had 15 or fewer carries and totaled only 13 catches. In Week One, he played 72% of the snaps, but was back at over 90% for the next two.
Indeed, in Week One, Bell was subbed out for four receiver sets with Eli Rogers/JuJu Smith-Schuster coming onto the field. That was basically scrapped for the rest of the season.
So call Williams’ claim a “half-truth” because aside from Week One, Bell’s first week back, he was logging a normal amount of snaps with perhaps a couple fewer touches. And it’s hard to say it was a “punishment” as much as it was a logical decision; Bell needed at least a little time to get into football-shape again. That all can be debated in the comments below.
And Haley, of course, is now gone and we have no idea how Randy Fichtner will approach things, though those types of decisions are likely made in conjunction with Mike Tomlin. Ultimately, it’s much ado about nothing but an interesting, and new, criticism on Haley and how Bell was used as he made his debut.
