The Pittsburgh Steelers have a pending situation overhead with star running back Le'Veon Bell's current contract situation of being under the franchise tag for the second straight year. In similar fashion to last offseason, Bell has made it clear that he doesn't want to play under that designation once again.

However, the extension talks haven't exactly progressed in the manner that the Steelers would have liked at this point in time. According to Aditi Kinkhabwala of The NFL Network, this appears to be lying with the fact that Bell is eyeing to get paid like All-Pro wide receiver Antonio Brown on his next deal.

“Everybody associated with this has said that the Steelers want to do a long-term deal. Everybody knows we're in the business of trying to lock him up for the rest of his career.' However, as (general manager) Kevin Colbert …told the local media, that's not urgency right now, and here's why: Le'Veon Bell wants $17 million a year. He wants to be paid exactly like Antonio Brown is paid. So the Steelers are saying, ‘Well, we're going to wait a little while before we address that fully because clearly the Steelers don't feel that that's where Bell's value is.”

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The lack of movement toward an extension with this notion in place from the 26-year-old demonstrates that the team isn't willing at this point to pay him that type of money. It is why general manager Kevin Colbert has stated there isn't any urgency toward getting a new contract in place at this time.

There is still plenty of time for the Steelers to work out a new contract with Bell with the deadline currently being a few months away on July 16. The team is likely hoping that this window of time could push his asking price down in the process. Bell is certainly an elite talent at his position as arguably the best all-around running back in the league, but Pittsburgh doesn't want to break the bank open at that rate to keep him under a long-term deal.

All of this may come down to either Bell giving way a bit on his asking price or this could quickly turn into a similar situation that the team dealt with last offseason.