Le’Veon Bell has consistently been one of the best players in the NFL since he entered the league as a second-round pick in the 2013 NFL Draft. However, recently the Pittsburgh Steelers and Bell have had a tough time getting along. Bell thinks he deserves an enormous sum of money on his next contract, but with Bell’s injury history, the Steelers don’t want to commit long term. Bell has yet to show up to the Steelers’ facility and his replacement, James Conner, has played amazing football.
So, this brings up the question of what will happen to Le’Veon Bell? He has a good four years left in him as one of the top backs in the league. As of right now, the Steelers are listening to offers for Bell. Let’s take a look at two teams that I believe have an outstanding chance of getting him through a trade.
Green Bay Packers
As a Bears fan, the possibility of Le’Veon Bell, Aaron Rodgers, Jimmy Graham, and Davante Adams on the same team is frightening. The Packers haven’t had a consistent running game since Eddie Lacy came out of college. They need something or someone to take the pressure off of Aaron Rodgers and the passing game. And what’s the perfect fix to their problems?
Le’veon Bell.
He ran for over 1,200 yards and nine TD’s while catching 85 passes for 655 yards. That’s more receptions than some receivers can accumulate during a season. Bell is the perfect dual threat to take some pressure off of Rodgers and for the Packers to actually compete this season.
For a team that’s in one of the toughest divisions in the league with two top-five defenses in the Bears and Vikings, they’ll need some more versatility. Le’Veon Bell will be the fix to that. The only problems: What will it take to get Bell, and how much can they pay him?
Well, the Saints decided to give the Packers an extra first-round pick this year to move up for struggling edge-rusher Marcus Davenport. Two firsts should get the deal done for Pittsburgh. As for salary cap, the Packers have just over $7 million to work with. Getting rid of the old, worn-down, Clay Matthews (who’s taking up about $11 million) should free up just enough space to sign Bell.
PHILADELPHIA EAGLES
For some reason, I don’t think the Steelers would want to trade Bell inside of their own conference, so this scenario has the Steelers trading him to the defending Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles. The Eagles RB1, Jay Ajayi, has run the ball just 22 times for 85 yards and sometimes has trouble catching the ball.
Don’t get me wrong, 3.86 yards per carry is pretty solid, but the Eagles should be looking for more dependability and versatility with their RB1. Ajayi has only been able to surpass 1,000 yards on the ground once in his career. Bell has passed that three times while also catching the ball consistently. It would probably take a little more for the Steelers to trade such a young RB to the defending champs. Philadelphia would probably have to give up two first-round picks and a mid-to-late round pick.
The Eagles, like the Steelers, have a small amount of cap space to work with (just over $4 million). So, cutting some expensive veterans like Nick Foles and Michael Bennett, could give them just enough room to make the deal happen and give them the ability to commit to Bell long-term.
There are many teams that should be in the running for a player like Bell. However, these two teams with their current situation, have the best chance to land the Pro-Bowl running back. If one of these two teams were to land Bell, it would have an immense impact of their offensive production, versatility, and overall ability. It would give that team an extremely increased chance to take home the Lombardi Trophy in February.