Now that Le’Veon Bell and the Steelers have passed Monday’s deadline without a contract in place, Bell appears headed for unrestricted free agency in March. And he’ll hope to follow in the footsteps of someone he knows well: Kirk Cousins.
Bell and Cousins were teammates at Michigan State, and now Bell is slated to do the same thing Cousins did: Play out his rookie contract, then play two years on the franchise tag, then cash in as a true unrestricted free agent.
The value of the running back and quarterback positions means that, obviously, Bell won’t get anything close to the contract Cousins got from the Vikings this year. But Bell will hope that having the ability to shop himself to all 32 teams will put him in a position where he’s able to command more guaranteed money than any running back has previously received.
Bell will need to stay healthy in 2018 and not show any signs that he could be losing a step. If he does that, he could re-set the running back market.