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Pittsburgh Steelers running back Le'Veon Bell still hasn’t ended his long holdout to report to the team this week, putting his availability for Week 1 at risk.
During an interview on SiriusXM NFL Radio, Bell’s agent, Adisa Bakari, didn’t disclose his client's reasons for failing to report. Although, he did hint that it may have something to do with how the Steelers could plan to use Bell once he returns.
“I’m not going to discuss our plan publicly,” Bakari said, via Ray Fittipaldo of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “But if you’re Kevin Colbert and you’re Mike Tomlin, and you have a once-in-a-generation type of player for one more season, what would your plan be? . . .
Host Brady Quinn answered that he would “use [Bell] as much as possible.” While Bakari again declined to comment on that response, he did say, “You can read in between those lines.”
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If Bell is concerned about his likely workload this season, he certainly has good reason to. He’s averaged over 300 touches per year in five NFL seasons, including a career-high 406 last year.
For someone who’s set to hit free agency next year, it’s not exactly ideal for him to use up that much tread on his tires. And with the Steelers under no obligation to save his legs, there’s a legitimate concern that he could get overworked.
Bell still hasn’t signed his $14.5 million franchise tender, so he’s under no obligation to report to work this week. He can sit out a maximum of 10 weeks and still get credit for an accrued season under the terms of the collective bargaining agreement.
That would obviously not be a situation the Steelers would like to play out. But if Bell is serious about taking this extreme route in order to take care of himself, they may not have much of a choice.
