Le’Veon Bell Should Chill

The Steelers went to Cleveland and left with a tie on Opening Day this week. After the game, Le’Veon Bell (who is holding out, if you are living under a rock) tweeted this, assumedly from his couch:

🧐

— Le'Veon Bell (@LeVeonBell) September 9, 2018

The implication here is pretty unmistakeable. Bell is saying “look at my team. They can’t even beat the Browns without me!”

So looking past the fact that a tweet like that is likely to drive an even bigger wedge between him and his squad, let’s look at how a tweet like that may in fact rally the Steelers around James Conner. In fact, looking at the numbers, I’m not sure Bell should be encouraging folks to put their monocles on-

Last year, Le’Veon Bell played in 15 games, rushing 321 times for 1,2921 yards and 9 touchdowns. Of course, the draw to Bell is how much of a dual threat he is, catching 85 passes for 655 yards and two more TDs. So combined:

406 rushes/catches for 1,946 yards and 11 TDs

Now let’s take a look at what James Conner did today in the tie. He rushed 31 times for 135 yards and scored 2 touchdowns. He also caught 5 balls for 57 yards. Let’s look at that over the same 15 games:

540 rushes/catches for 2,880 yards and 30 TDs 

Not for nothin, but Conner is on the 2nd year of his rookie deal, a 4-year contract worth just under 3.2 million dollars. Considering Le’Veon Bell would be making about 14.5 million this season, that means Conner makes almost 1/5th of what Bell does in a season, for his entire 4 year deal. 

Of course there are massive holes in this premise. The Steelers were playing the Browns, Conner did it for one game as opposed to 15, etc etc.

But if I’m Le’Veon Bell, maybe I don’t want teammates, fans, and especially coaches looking closer at this game.

He might not be happy at what they actually see.

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