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The Pittsburgh Steelers have a pending situation on their hands with star running back Le'Veon Bell currently on the books under the franchise tag for the second straight year. Since that designation was placed on Bell, there hasn't been much movement toward getting a new extension worked out.
Over the last few days, general manager Kevin Colbert stated that the team is taking care of other pressing matters before hedging toward a new deal with the Pro Bowler. During a recent interview with Pro Football Talk Live, Colbert stated that Bell will be with the Steelers at least through the 2018 campaign.
Article Continues Below“[H]e’ll be a Pittsburgh Steeler in 2018,” Colbert said during a visit to PFT Live during the league meetings in Orlando. “Unless he did something that he didn’t do last year, I think we can assume that if we don’t get a long-term deal done he’ll show up and he’ll be as ready as he can be. Ideally, [we] would love to have him there for training camp. Not only for himself but for the rest of the team.”
Colbert appears to be quite confident that Bell's contract situation won't become an issue with the two sides working out something at some point over the next few months before the deadline on July 16th. There is still plenty of time until then, which should allow them to have a healthy dialogue about what kind of deal both can agree upon.
However, it could become tricky with Bell looking to garner a contract with an annual salary that matches the $17 million a year that All-Pro wide receiver Antonio Brown is currently making on his deal. The Steelers probably aren't interested in committing that type of money to him.
Things could begin to pick up after the draft next month, with the only focus at that point being to prepare for training camp. Nonetheless, it's something that has to be addressed by Pittsburgh in the coming weeks to a much greater extent.
