The Pittsburgh Steelers will conduct training camp without star running back Le’Veon Bell for the second-straight year. Bell has opted to stay away from the team after once again failing to come to terms on a long-term deal.
Steelers owner Art Rooney II was asked about the whole Bell situation by NFL Network's Judy Battista on Inside Training Camp Live on Saturday, and he expressed his confidence that Bell will remain committed to the team when he returns despite the fact that this could be his last year in Pittsburgh.
“We went through this last year,” Rooney said per Jeremy Bergman of NFL.com, “and when Le'Veon got here, his commitment to the team is as good as ever so expect the same thing when he gets here this year. Of course, I hope he gets here a little earlier; we'll see.
“Le'Veon is a professional. We're disappointed we weren't able to come to an agreement but that's the business side of football. Respect his position, no hard feelings. We just like to get him here as quickly as we can and get him started.”
Bell came out of the gates slowly after missing camp last season. He had just 180 total rushing yards through his first three games and had less than 90 yards in four of his first five contests. But he eventually found his groove and logged in a career-high 406 touches en route to 1,946 total yards from scrimmage and a First-Team All-Pro selection.
There’s been some talk that Bell could potentially sit out regular-season games (possibly even half the season) to limit his workload ahead of free agency. But it doesn’t seem as if Rooney believes Bell will give less than 100 percent for Pittsburgh this season.
Hopefully for Steelers fans, Rooney turns out to be right. Given Bell's importance to the team, they'll need him to be at his best or pretty close to it to contend this season.
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