Le'Veon Bell and his agent, Adisa Bakari, said during the summer the All-Pro running back would report to the Steelers as he did last season and have his best statistical season yet.
But that meant Bell would have reported to the Steelers a week before the start of the regular season and signed his franchise tender offer. That didn't happen, and many felt Bell was going to skip the entire 2018 season.
Bell told ESPN's Jeremy Fowler Monday night he's set to end his holdout and will report to the Steelers during their bye in Week 7.
"It sucks having to sit out football," Bell said. "I want to play. I want to win games and the playoffs.
"But I've gotta take this stand. Knowing my worth and knowing I can tear a ligament or get surgery at any time, I knew I couldn't play 16 games with 400 or more touches."
Instead, it appears he'll miss the first six games of the season and could return in time for a Week 8 game against the Cleveland Browns. The Steelers (1-2-1) host Atlanta this Sunday and then travel to Cincinnati in Week 6.
Bell's return could be a welcome addition to a Steelers offense that has struggled without his presence. While James Conner had 135 yards rushing on 31 carries in a Week 1 tie at Cleveland, he also lost a key fumble with the Steelers leading 21-7 midway through the fourth quarter.
He's also had just 97 yards on 32 carries in the three games since, and the Steelers have gone 1-2 in those games.
"We’ve got to get the run game going more," center Maurkice Pouncey told me Monday. "But whenever your down — we only got six plays and we’re down 14-0 — the game plan changes dramatically. You can’t screw around and only get three or four yards, you’ve got to get chunk plays and get the score back to even. That’s happened the last couple of games. It’s hard to say James should just go out there and run the football, because we’ve got to score points."
That's not typically a problem with Bell, who has averaged 128.9 total yards per game in his career, the most in NFL history.
But Bell has balked at signing his franchise tag offer of $14.54 million this year after playing for $12.1 million on the tag in 2017, when he led the NFL with 407 touches.
Bell, 26, and the Steelers couldn't come to terms on a long-term deal by the league-mandated mid-July deadline, with the Steelers offering a deal worth a reported $70 million over five years -- $14 million per season -- that included $33 million in guaranteed money.
Bell has reportedly been asking for at least $17 million per season.
When he failed to report at the start of this season, some of his teammates lashed out at him, particularly the offensive linemen, including Pouncey and Ramon Foster.
“Honestly it’s a little selfish. I’m kinda pissed right now,” Pouncey said at the time.
Bell thinks that all will be fine once he shows up.
"I've got a lot of good relationships with players on the team," Bell said. "They probably think I back-doored them. But I think they understand the decision. At the end of the day, they said what they said in the media. I'm not really too upset about it. It was a little disappointing, but I understand their side. When I talk to them, I hope they get that side of it."
The same goes for the fans, who Bell hopes will understand he made what he claims is a business decision.
"It's costing me some fans," Bell said. "A lot of people call me selfish, but I'm really not. I'm doing it for guys behind me or guys who don't understand what's going on in the business of football. The 22 years I've been playing football, I've always brought value. I don't think the Steelers valued me as much."
Whether that's true or not is debatable. After all, the Steelers offered to make him the highest-paid running back in the league. And though they have reportedly starting shopping the 2013 second-round draft pick, the asking price has been steep -- a second-round pick and a player.
The difficulty has been finding a trade partner with the kind of cap space available to sign Bell, who has forfeited $855,000 per week by not signing his deal. If Bell doesn't return until Week 7, the Steelers would owe him $9.4 million for the remainder of the season.
That could mean the Steelers could argue that is Bell's base salary in 2018, since he forfeited the right to the other $5.1 million with his holdout. The Steelers could use the transition tag on Bell in 2019, something a team source said is a possibility, at the cost of a 120 percent raise from his 2018 salary. Bell would argue that rate is $17 million, a raise from his $14.54 franchise salary, while the Steelers could counter with an offer of $11.29 million based on his actual salary, which is how the CBA is worded.
But the transition tag would only give the Steelers the right to match an offer Bell would receive on the open market with no compensation if they choose not to match.
Bell feels he can still finish his career with the Steelers.
"I could be naïve or hopeful, but at the end of the day I feel like that's what's going to happen," Bell said. "I don't think they really want me gone. That could be me being prideful. But I'm still holding out hope."
