Pittsburgh Steelers running back Le’Veon Bell continues to wait for his much-coveted long-term contract from the team. He’s already sat out the spring workouts and could prolong his holdout into training camp if they still can’t come to terms on a new deal.

However, Bell says he remains optimistic that it won’t have to come to that and stressed that he wants to attend camp and play for Pittsburgh long-term.

“Yeah. You know regardless that's what I want to do,” Bell said per Chris Wesseling of NFL.com. “I don't want to have the replications of what happened last year. But if that came down to that, obviously I got to do what I got to do. Take my stand and protect myself. I don't want to have to do that. I want to go to camp and play for the Steelers long term.

Bell's optimism may be due to the fact that he feels this year’s negotiations have been much closer compared to last year, where he also opted to hold out during training camp.

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“Obviously, the people in the organization try to do what's best for them and I'm trying to do what's best for me,” Bell added. “We're working on it. We're a lot closer than we were last year at this time. That's what I'm happy about. None of that matters if we don't get it done. Hopefully we'll try to get something done. That's what I'm looking forward to. I got confidence we'll get it done. I want to do it.”

The Steelers have once again franchise-tagged Bell, who will earn $14.5 million this season if they can’t finalize a long-term deal by the July 16 deadline. It was previously reported that Bell was looking for upwards of $17 million per year, but the Steelers may not even be willing to go as high as $14 million.

Despite Bell’s optimism, the clock is ticking on getting a deal done. Unless one side gives in, it seems unlikely that they can actually come to terms in time, which means Bell will most likely be MIA in training camp once again.