Yeah, I know, you don't want to hear about former Pittsburgh Steelers running back Le'Veon Bell. We don't usually report about him here, but we found his comments on Twitter today to be very interesting. Especially because he's referring to the Steelers in his comments.
Photo / TribLive.com
This is what Bell had to say today about the situation unfolding in San Francisco between receiver/running back Deebo Samuel. Yesterday Samuel's officially asked for a trade from the team via his agent.
if Debo doesn’t play this year, 1 thing the 49ers gon make sure of is to feed someone else the ball & make it seem as if they didn’t need Debo…when in reality, we all know the truth…but if Debo doesn’t play, they’ll try and make it seem like the “back up” is just as good"
if Debo doesn’t play this year, 1 thing the 49ers gon make sure of is to feed someone else the ball & make it seem as if they didn’t need Debo…when in reality, we all know the truth…but if Debo doesn’t play, they’ll try and make it seem like the “back up” is just as good …
— Le'Veon Bell (@LeVeonBell) April 21, 2022
That sounds like a slap in the face to James Conner to me. When Bell was sitting out in 2018 the Steelers turned to the second-year running back. Conner produced, and went to his first Pro Bowl after he ran for 973 yards, and caught 55 passes for another 497 yards. He combined for 13 total touchdowns replacing Bell.
It's a pretty stupid comment by Bell to be honest. The Steelers didn't go out of their way to feed Conner the ball. Conner was capable of doing the job while he was healthy. We saw it at Pitt, we saw it for the Steelers, and we saw it for Arizona last season when he went to his second Pro Bowl. The facts of the matter were that when Bell went to the New York Jets after sitting out all of 2018, he just wasn't as good. He went from having arguably the best offensive line in the game to one of the worst. And it showed for Bell. He also went from Ben Roethlisberger to Sam Darnold. Were the Steelers interested in making Bell look stupid? I'm sure they were, and they did. But it wasn't because they took some no-name running back and handed it to him every play just to pad his stats.
Joe Sargent/Getty Images
Bell made another tweet that was just as dumb as the first one.
Debo is basically getting punished for doin too much & helping the team win🤦🏾♂️ Debo just need to stay outta the backfield…
— Le'Veon Bell (@LeVeonBell) April 21, 2022
Let's not act like Samuel had 150 rush attempts, because he didn't. He had 59. He made the most of them by rushing for 365 yards in those attempts though. Isn't the whole point of playing to win? To help your team win? Samuel lined up in the back field on average 4 times per game. I don't think that's too much to ask of him. The league is evolving, and he plays for a coach in Kyle Shanahan that's always trying to find the new and innovative thing. And it's worked for him as the 49ers went to the NFC Championship again last season.
Local TV personality Bob Pompeani asked Bell if he could do it all over again would he have just stayed in Pittsburgh?
I’d play WR 😂 https://t.co/sfT0sZ5g8j
— Le'Veon Bell (@LeVeonBell) April 21, 2022
Bell didn't answer the question, but is obviously making a testament to the fact that the wide receiver market has gone crazy this off-season. If he could do it all over again he surely wouldn't of held out in Pittsburgh. He wouldn't of lost all of the money he did in 2018 to just be nearly retired by 2022.
