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Originally Posted by Chaka
I’m guessing this will be an unpopular opinion, but I see no problem with the team repeatedly franchising the guy. Bell is part of a very powerful labor union which negotiated this arrangement with the teams, and the players then signed off on it. Nobody is taking advantage of anybody here. The team can keep its best player, but at a cost that is something close to a premium. And the cost of repeatedly tagging someone can be astronomical – look at what happened with Kurt Cousins in Washington.
Is it the same as the player would get from unrestricted free agency? No, probably not, but it’s still a lot of guaranteed cash. Most importantly for fans like us, it gives us some degree of assurance that our favorite players will be sticking around for the long term. How comfortable would you be if Luck could just up and leave the Colts once his contract expired? Even the mere prospect of the franchise tag can bring everyone to the negotiating table and often a long term deal gets done in the shadow of this possibility. I think the system currently in place has worked out well for everyone, all things considered.
As for Bell himself, I don’t like that he’s bashing his former team and celebrating their losses – it just doesn’t sound like he’d be a good influence. And on a more fundamental level, I’m concerned about paying so much for a 28-year old running back. As I mentioned in another post, his stats from last year are not as impressive as the Steelers’ current running back (James Conner), so is it the system or the player? Furthermore, RBs tend to peak in their mid-20s, so I don't like the risk that we would be buying into a guy on the downside of his career.
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I haven’t heard anything he said against the team. I did hear about some of his teammates bashing him when he wouldn’t sign and join the team.
What other industry forces someone to work for their organization after a contract expires and to do it for multiple years? I feel the Steelers are violating the spirit of the tag. It isn’t meant to be used over and over again. If you can’t come to an agreement then let him go to a team that will. QB money and RB are not the same, I think they are an apples to oranges comparison. The Steelers can keep tagging him and work it in to the budget. Bell is a huge part of that offense generating a large amount of yards and points. Pay him or don’t pay him, that is their decision. But by slapping a one year deal on him every year they are costing him the security of a long term deal. If he gets hurt one of these seasons he won’t have a team the next year. Also, the franchise tag may not even equal what he could earn in free agency. I think the damage has already been done. As you said you don’t want to sign a 28 year old RB. They could have cost him the security of his second contract. That is a large chunk of change.
And I don’t want to sign him either.