Le'Veon Bell could be signing any moment now. Recent reports have him choosing between the New York Jets and Baltimore Ravens, but some other reports say the Ravens aren't interested at all. The Jets are the only team we know for sure is interested, and they've reportedly given Bell a deadline by which he must accept their offer, or they'll move on.
Teams have been dropping out of the sweepstakes left and right, according to Albert Breer of SI.com. Breer writes that Bell's market has been tumbling, and the “feeling is you might be able to get him at $11-12 million per” year. What seems clear now is that Bell has been holding out for better offers, and isn't thrilled with what is on the table.
If that's true, it'd be a somewhat embarrassing number for Bell. Gregg Rosenthal tweets that the best offer for Bell may have been the one the Steelers made to him, last year.
Looking more likely by the hour that the best Le’Veon Bell offer came from the Steelers last year: $33M in first 2 years, $45M over first 3.
— Gregg Rosenthal (@greggrosenthal) March 12, 2019
The Steelers were willing to pay him top-running back money, but he passed. Bell was supposed to make $14.5 million under the franchise tag last year, and now it appears he's going to have to accept less than that.
If that's the case, it'll be a terrible look both for Bell and his agent. The market is clearly less than they anticipated, and it seems they'll be getting significantly less money than David Johnson and Todd Gurley got on their recent extensions. As Breer points out, things could change and it “only takes one” team to blow everything up.
It's always possible someone swoops in with a godfather offer at the end, but as of right now it's not looking good for Le'Veon Bell. It'll be very interesting to see what the final number ends up being.
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