Pittsburgh Steelers are ready to listen to trade offers for their disgruntled All-Pro running back Le’Veon Bell. This comes after Bell decided to miss both the preseason and the start of the regular season after not receiving a new contract from the team.
Of course, this won’t be an easy task, since Steelers would need cooperation from Le’Veon Bell in order to facilitate any trade move. The 26-year-old will need to approve the move since he is currently not under contract, refusing to sign his franchise tag. In case that he doesn’t want to be traded, he just has to wait until trade deadline has passed on October 30th.
But, there is some motivation for Le’Veon Bell to work with the Steelers. Currently, he is losing $855,529 per each game by not playing, which will amount to a pretty hefty sum in case Bell decides to wait until Week 10, the final deadline he has to report to the team. If he doesn’t report by then, Steelers may franchise tag him for 2019 as well, delaying his free agency.
It is still unclear what kind of the market is it out there for Bell. Teams that are willing to offer him a big payday might decide to wait out until the summer. On the other hand, Bell may not want to be a one-year rental for a team that doesn’t intend to sign him next year. With all of that said, there are a handful of NFL teams calling Pittsburgh Steelers about the player.
According to NY Daily News, New York Jets are the team that looks like the most likely candidate to make a move for Le’Veon Bell. While they did not make a concrete offer, it is believed that they could give up their 2019 first round pick or two third rounders. Steelers will probably not accept anything less since they will be able to get a compensatory third-round pick next year if Bell leaves in free agency.
Jets have the cap space to sign Bell in the summer to a kind of a deal he looks, so their approach should be taken seriously.
