The Pittsburgh Steelers aren’t playing on this Sunday but they are making news headlines ahead of the start of the Week 3 early games just the same.
According to Adam Schefter of ESPN, the Steelers are now listening to trade offers for Bell, who has yet to report and sign his franchise tag this year.
While this might sound very exciting to most fans of the Steelers, people need to keep in mind that the team can’t trade Bell until he signs his franchise tag tender. Additionally, a team that might want to trade for Bell would have to do so knowing he might only be a rental for them the rest of the regular season. Like the Steelers, other NFL teams can’t sign Bell to a long-term contract until after the 2018 regular season is over now that the mid July deadline has passed.
Personally, I find it hard to believe that any team would trade for Bell knowing that he might sign elsewhere come March 2019, the start of free agency.
Additionally, like former NFL agent Joel Corry told me a few weeks ago, Bell might demand a no-trade cause or trade veto power in his franchise tag tender if and when he ever shows up to sign it as language such as that can still be negotiated.
As of Monday night, Bell will have missed three regular season games and thus forfeited himself over $2.566 million in 2018 earnings. Bell must report and sign his franchise tag tender ahead of Week 11 if he wants to play at all this season.
