Le’Veon Bell received a four-year, $52.5MM contract from the Jets, thereby bringing an end to one of the most-discussed storylines in recent memory. And although that is a hefty sum for a running back, even one as explosive as Bell, New York appears to have managed the risk-reward aspect of the contract quite nicely. Here are some details:
- Manish Mehta of the New York Daily News provides a breakdown of Bell’s payouts (via Twitter). He notes that the total guarantee is $25MM, as opposed to the $35MM that was first reported, and he also points out that the Jets will pay out $26MM in cash through the first two years of the deal.
- Bell’s base salaries in 2019 and 2020 ($2.5MM and $6MM) are fully guaranteed, but after that, the guaranteed money is gone. That means that the Jets can cut bait after two seasons –having paid just $26MM — and would incur a fairly modest $4MM dead cap charge while saving $11.5MM against the cap.
- Mehta also tweeted Bell’s salary cap hits for each of the four contract years. He will count for just $8MM against the cap in 2019.
- As Tom Pelissero of the NFL Network tweets, the deal also includes $3MM training camp reporting bonuses in 2021 and 2022, which could disincentivize Bell from staging another holdout after his guarantees dry up.
All in all, then, the Jets appear to have secured a great player on a reasonable contract, and if things don’t work out as planned, the deal will not handicap them in the long-term.
Great move Le’Veon! You sure showed the Steelers.
+1
+2
Left way more money on the table in Pitt. Just shows everyone how bad that organization is being ran these days. This should clearly mean he just wanted out of Pitt.
I think it says that Bell is a terrible businessman more than it says anything about the Steelers. Hopefully he’s never an agent.
Gets less money but no longer has to deal with that joke of a team. That’s a huge win. Steelers are quickly turning into the NFL version of the Lakers when they had Kobe with Ben being Kobe only Ben isn’t as good and doesn’t have the rings Kobe did. Stars don’t want to play with him.
I’m entirely convinced you’re either a troll who only posts on this site to anger Steeler fans, or you just don’t have a clue what you’re talking about and hate the Steelers. Either way, you should probably just stop
Well Well Well…. We have another volunteer, comment police officer here trying to tell people how much they should comment. You gonna arrest him?
Where are you when the SAME people are constantly posting negative comments about Bell/Brown?? GFY
Listen, I’m don’t have anything against you, but this guy, the one I commented about, has called people stupid for their opinions unprovoked on multiple occasions. He thinks he knows more than everyone else on this site. It’s okay to call someone out when you want to have a conversation, but TheTruth listens to no one and insists he’s right 24/7. I don’t regret saying that, and I don’t care if you want to come after me for it
why should he stop .. facts are facts.. and it leaked out
He didn’t give a single fact. Literally everything he said was an opinion. There was nothing there to leak
Did Ben get drunk and take you into a bathroom or something?
He only does that to defenseless girls. Re: cash settlements
When the guarantee was reportedly $35 mil, you could make an argument that he guaranteed himself more money in the long run by sitting out a year. Given that he’d have logged another 400 touches (he had 430 in 2017), he probably would’ve struggled to get $20+ million in guarantees this off season.
But the number being $25 million makes it tougher to argue. Tevin Coleman basically got $10 mil guaranteed. Barring a career threatening injury, Bell would’ve easily gotten that.
The sycophants will still argue he made a brilliant business decision when anyone who understand math and the RB market knew he was flushing money down the toilet for no good reason.
And they completely ignore the part where Bell could have pocketed $14.5 million, HAD A GOOD SEASON and been able to land a much larger deal now.
It was dumb. But, when you can be dumb and still make 8 figures, whatever.
I honestly think he was trying to set a precedent with guaranteed money. Theres a reasonable chance that he values security (guaranteed money) over non guaranteed money so much so that he is willing to accept a much lower potential total dollar figure
Great/Smart deal !
Jets being uncharacteristically smart!
Jets are gonna run him into the ground, cut him after two years, and hardly pay him. Kudos to Bell for sticking up to the man but he lost hard on this one.
Most the pittsburgh beat reporters out there using spin and semantics, saying that Bell had $33 million in “practical” guarantees, “rolling” guarantees, from Pittsburgh. “They were unlikely to cut him before he got the guarantees”. Yet, they still fail to disclose that the FULLY guaranteed portion was only $10 million. But, Pittsburgh would’ve kept him in “good faith”. It’s actually comical.
I’m sure Bell will go after his agent now because he gave him bad advice.
I still can’t “pick a side” on either Bell/AB and Steelers based solely on all the history when it comes to Ben.
Disgruntled? Maybe
Divas? Maybe
… but, personally, I can’t shake the feeling that Bell is going to follow up on AB’s comments about Ben any day now; and, unfortunately, I won’t be surprised because they wouldn’t exactly be called “revelations” nor “newflashes”
ijs
You’d think the Steelers would figure out that something was wrong when their 2 best players want to get out
Glad I’m not a Steelers fan
Say what you want, but Bell took the L… dude wanted to be,
1. Highest paid RB
2. Change the RB money landscape
3. Create a new RB/WR hybrid contract
4. Play for the Jets for 100 mil
He literally accomplished none of those. He got paid his money, but he still took the L. in the end the NFL Owners won.
He literally said NONE of those things you mention. But, cool story though
Im a Jets fan, I like the Bell signing, and I support Bell willing to stand his ground and/or FA to try and get more guaranteed money. However, I know for a fact that he at least said #4. Theres a video of a TMZ guy talking to Bell about Adams wanting Bell on the team. Bell dismissed the thought, the TMZ guy was like “what would make you play for the Jets?” to which Bell replied “100 Ms”. He also had a tweet out that said it would take much more than 60MM to run with the Jets.
He did respond to someone on Twitter about the $60, but not many players negotiate on social media. As as a matter of fact, he didn’t do any tv interviews before, during his holdouts, so all those “reset the market” claims are bogus.
This isnt about what he said at negotiations. There is video of him saying that he would play it would take “100 M’s” to play for the Jets.
All I can tell you is that #4 is an absolute fact.
Ha! I just read you reply… you can believe what you want, but every elite player wants to be the highest paid at their position, and they should. He has been quoted by multiple sources that he wants to be paid as not just a elite rb but as a number 2 we, hence creating a new hybrid contract. Being that he wanted to be paid for a player who plays two positions his perceived value was around 15mil which would have reset the tbrunning
This app is difficult sometimes… but anyways… I can rant all I want but I do think he deserved to get paid and he can hold out if he wants. His body his money… but I still think he went about it wrong and he didn’t get the contract that he was holding out for. And if he just wanted out of Pitt he should of just Man’d up and said so.
Genius.
Bell is a nice but dumb guy and his agent did him so wrong.
Should have hired Rosenhaus.
all i say is money dont matter .. he got enuff to live out his life.. bottom line is he wanted out of the pitt ( pittsburgh)
You want snapshot of how classy Steelers fan are, just look at the comment section every time AB/Bell post’s on social media. But wait, only people that criticize the Steelers are the trolls.