Good for McKinnon but his contract is still under 8 million a year, which means despite being the 4th highest paid back now, he's still about half the cost that Bell is asking for.
With the franchise tag, can't another team match or beat that offer if they wanted to? If he's worth that much then teams should be knocking down the door to trade for him
"Exclusive tags are more rare. Only Broncos linebacker Von Miller (2016) and Saints quarterback Drew Brees (2012) have received the exclusive tag since 2012. The salary is calculated the same for players issued non-exclusive tags. The only difference is that the tagged player cannot negotiate with other teams."
http://www.sportingnews.com/nfl/news...w1qb7lne9t9ka0
There you go. Bell was exclusive tagged (I think he was last year despite what the article says). Teams are not knocking on the door because there is no door to knock on.
As to the McKinnon thing. He costs half as much because he will play half as much. Even if we assume he plays more than he did in Minnesota last season (527 snaps) as he assumes the Devontae Freeman role in Shannahan's offense that is still roughly 600-700 snaps. That is between 350-250 less than Bell plays.
Again, I am not saying that the Steelers have to or should feel obligated to back up the Brinks truck to Bell's house. Age and wear and tear are serious issues. But the idea that Bell is simply pulling numbers out of the ether that have no contact with reality is not totally true.
The bottom line is that it is a shame that Bell can't compromise at all and get something done for a less overall # but with more guarantees or something. It would still reset the RB market and give him status without breaking the bank. But I suspect that is Bell's point. He wants to break the bank and put RB's on the same contract tier as WRs, OTs, low-end QBs, and high end TEs on the offensive side of the ball.
See you Space Cowboy ...
It’s kinda remarkable that he’s willing to hold his stance like this not taking a multi year contract with guaranteed money after seeing what happened to Shazier on the field...if that happens to him next year, he’s got nothing...
You have to wonder if the Steeler have reached this point with Bell.
* It was 2002, and Holmes (6-2, 242), the Steelers’ fourth-round pick in 1996, was an unrestricted free agent looking for a new contract with the team that drafted him. A full-time starter since he second season in the league, Holmes was a run-stuffing inside linebacker, and after protracted negotiating sessions, the talks had hit a stalemate. Dan Rooney had his contract negotiator make an offer that Rooney saw as the best he was willing to do, and still it was declined.
* Frustrated, Rooney told Kevin Colbert and Cowher that he was done negotiating with Holmes, and they should start scouring the market for somebody else who could play inside linebacker. Farrior, the eighth overall pick of the 1997 NFL Draft by the Ne York Jets, had been miscast by Coach Bill Parcells as an outside linebacker and because he only had 5.5 sacks in five seasons that arrangement clearly wasn’t working for either side.
There are a few things you can do. You can fine a player the week's pay for any game he's deactivated for "non-performance reasons."
You can suspend a player up to 4 weeks without pay for conduct detrimental to the team.
Then there's the Reserve/Left Team list, which is basically like being put on IR without pay for insubordination. It also means you can force the player to play out whatever was left of his contract the next season, although in that case I severely doubt it would happen.
In other words, if it's all about the $$$ for Bell-Einstein, he can still lose some or all of it by doing something stupid like that.
It's also possible for teams to fine a player 1% of his salary per day for missing training camp, or 1/17 of his salary for missing preseason games, up to 25% total. We didn't use that last year to play nice, but I would advise playing hardball this time so he gets his ass ready for the season. We already know he's not coming back, so fuck taking it easy on his feelings.
See you Space Cowboy ...