Steeler’s Offseason Potentially Transformative

This past season has brought many questions for the Pittsburgh Steelers. First, their star running back Le’Veon Bell held out the entire season because he wanted a new and bigger deal.  Now the Steelers will not franchise tag the running back. Bell will be a free agent starting on March 13^th at four p.m.

There is a long list of teams who want Bell. The front runner right now is the New York Jets, who can offer the most money. The Colts are also contenders, due to the quarterback play in Andrew Luck and the other young talent on the team. Bell going to the Colts could make them a Super Bowl contender. Another team in the running has been the Oakland Raiders. Oakland recently traded for the Steelers star wide-receiver Antonio Brown. If Bell signs with Oakland, the trio of Bell, Brown, and the Raiders QB Derek Carr could be hard to stop.

Speaking of Antonio Brown, there has been a lot of talk about him so far this off-season, and something finally happened. He was traded on Sunday March 10^th to the Oakland Raiders from the Pittsburgh Steelers.

LHS Senior Lucas Elder, discussing the Brown Trade, said, “It will be very interesting to see how the Raiders will perform with a superstar wide receiver and an up and down quarterback.” Elder made great points about the Raiders’ quarterback position. Derek Carr has proven he can be a good quarterback, but last year he struggled. He made his old teammate wide-receiver Amari Cooper look bad, but he was traded to the Cowboys and played like a star. Another senior Ricky Sullivan said this about Le’veon Bell’s situation, “Le’veon Bell is the best running back in the league and i believe he will go to Oakland with his old teammate Antonio Brown.” This statement made by Ricky is bold because the Raiders don’t seem to have the money to pull in Bell. Ricky added in his interview, “I think Bell will take less money, so he can play with his old teammate.”

BREAKING NEWS: 3/12/19

Tuesday, March 12th, Le’veon Bell decided to sign with the New York Jets. Bell signed a four-years/$52.5m deal. He is guaranteed $35 million and could make up to $61 million. When Bell signed he posted on twitter “I’m back in the green baby, lets get it.” Bell spent his college days at Michigan State who’s colors are green like the jets. Sarah Bryant, a Lafayette Senior and huge Jets fan, had this to say about the huge signing, “I’m really excited to see what Le’veon Bell brings to the Franchise and to the city of New York.”

The Steeler’s will now be without two game changing players. Their offense still has many weapons. They have young players like James Connor and Juju Smith-Schuster. Connor put up numbers similar to Le’veon Bell last season, so we will all see how he performs under the pressure of filling Bell’s shoes.