The New York Jets have contacted the Pittsburgh Steelers in trade negotiations for Le’Veon Bell. Here’s what it all means.
The New York Jets continue to go big-name hunting with the latest rumor circulating around 1 Jets Drive.
Manish Mehta of the New York Daily News has reported that the Jets have reached out to the Pittsburgh Steelers to engage in trade discussions for former Pro Bowl running back Le’Veon Bell.
“The Jets have not made a concrete offer for Bell yet, but they believe that the Steelers are serious about moving the dynamic offensive weapon,” according to Mehta
What would an offer look like?
If the Steelers let Bell go in free agency, they will likely acquire a third-round compensatory pick for losing him. So the Steelers are looking for more than that back in return. Although important to note, the Steelers don’t have any leverage in this situation.
But likely the offer would be a conditional second-round pick based on either percentage of playing time or based off of what team he’s with during 2019. Or multiple mid-to-late round picks are possible as well.
Here are the details that are important to note before you start purchasing your New York Jets Le’Veon Bell jersey.
The Jets, or any team in the NFL, cannot extend Bell once they acquire him or beforehand. The CBA rules are clear.
Although, as Mehta suggests in his piece, a *wink-wink* multi-year contract extension could be verbally agreed to behind the scenes so the Jets can feel some security in their acquisition.
Outside of that happening, the Jets are taking a huge gamble that once they trade away draft compensation for Bell, they might have him for a 13-game sample size ahead of his pending free agency tour in 2019.
The team is expected to have north of $90 million in available cap space next year in free agency. So a long-term deal for Bell is completely in the realm of possibilities in the future.