While $70 million is a substantial amount of money, it seems it wasn’t enough to seal the deal with Le’Veon Bell and the Steelers.
According to NFL.com, the Steelers made their final offer to Bell just hours before the NFL’s 4 pm ET deadline for franchise players to secure new deals. The offer was a five-year contract worth $70 million. Despite the potential for Bell to secure the largest multi-year contract for a running back in the league, he declined. One of the main reasons cited for this decision was the offer falling short of Bell’s reported asking price of nearly $17 million per season.
Another factor in Bell’s decision was the lack of substantial guarantees in the offer. According to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, the deal included $33 million guaranteed over the first two years, with the first three years totaling $45 million. However, it’s unclear if all of this money was guaranteed. The remaining two years of the deal did not specify any guaranteed money. Ultimately, Bell chose not to accept the offer.
Instead, Bell has decided to take a risk on himself, potentially setting himself up for a lucrative free agency period in 2019.
