Le’Veon Bell has been adamant that he does not want to play under the franchise tag for a second straight year, and he has even hinted that he would rather retire or sit out the entire 2018 season. Apparently the star running back has softened his stance a bit.
As Jeremy Fowler of ESPN.com notes, Bell told fans in an Instagram Live chat on Wednesday that he will not skip games if he still does not have a long-term contract extension in place. Bell will almost certainly hold out from training camp if he doesn’t get a new deal, but he insists he won’t leave his teammates hanging come Week 1.
“Honestly, no, I’m not going to sit out,” he said. “I’m going to be in the facility Week 1,” Bell said. “It’s going to be a rerun of last year. I’m not going to [training] camp. I’m not doing nothing else extra, OTAs, none of that. …
“I’m going to strictly go to what I have to go to. I want to win every game. I want to have the best statistical career that I possibly can, so I want to play in every game that I can possibly play.”
Bell said as recently as Monday that retirement was still an option as was sitting out until Week 10, so it’s unclear which remarks were the truth. Perhaps he doesn’t know just yet.
One other star Steelers players already made an adjustment to his own contract that could help the team re-sign Bell, so we’ll see if that comes into play this offseason.
