If you were expecting Pittsburgh Steelers running back Le’Veon Bell to report to the team on Monday you can now officially be disappointed.
According to several Twitter reports on Monday, Bell did not report to sign his franchise tender immediately following the team’s bye week and thus it’s now looking more and more like he’ll wait until just after the trade deadline to show up.
According to a Sunday report by Adam Schefter of ESPN, the Steelers had still not heard anything from Bell as it relates to when he plans to ultimately show up this season. However, Jay Glazer of Fox Sports did report Sunday morning that Bell’s representation did finally talk to the Steelers late last week about what the terms of a two-week roster exemption would possibly look like once the running back does decide to report.
According to Glazer, the Steelers don’t want to pay Bell during his roster exemption period that figures to last as long as two weeks. Bell, obviously, would want to be paid while being on the team’s roster exempt list.
Even if Bell were to have shown up on Monday, it would have been highly unlikely that he would have been deemed ready to play against the Cleveland Browns this coming Sunday at Heinz Field. By not reporting to the team this week, it’s also now highly doubtful that Bell will be ready to play in the Steelers Week 9 road game against the Baltimore Ravens. Additionally, the Steelers Week 10 game against the Carolina Panthers will take place the following Thursday night so Bell’s now likely to miss that game as well.
In order to be eligible to play this season, Bell will need to have signed his franchise tag tender by the time Week 11 gets underway. Bell has already forfeited $5,988,703 of the $14.544 million he could have earned in 2018 by refusing to sign the franchise tag he was issued by the Steelers during the offseason. He forfeits $855,529 every week he decides to stay away and the Steelers receive that amount as a cap credit every week.
