I used to hate Le'Veon Bell, but now I honestly think him holding out was the best thing for the Steelers.
1- We found our RB of the future, who's putting up better numbers than PRIME Le'Veon Bell. For 1/16th of the cap hit. With that said, I hope Conner gets paid a bigger contract than Bell was offered after years of solid production. Conner doesn't come across as stupid as Bell and should know a good deal when he sees it.
2- Conner's running style in my opinion is giving this offense some identity. No longer are they a cute finesse team, they're taking on the look of a power football team that can also beat you with the big play. The Steeler offense is becoming fun to watch, the physicality of the running game is punishing opposing defenses, which I haven't seen since the mid 2000's. Although Bell is a bigger RB, he doesn't seem to finish his runs with the same violence that Conner does.
3- The offense seems like more of a complete unit. I'm seeing a lot less of the preening and rah-rah celebrations for making routine first down plays. I have a feeling that Conner's blue collar approach to the game is rubbing off on the rest of the team. I'm just going by the eye test here, but this offense looks more like an actual functioning team rather than just a collection of talented individuals.
4- He's given our future RB a chance to establish himself, and his holdout so far saved nearly another 8 million so far to our cap that will carry over next year. Thanks Le'Veon for making the Steelers a better team! Now come back, cause we could use a solid #2