Le'Veon Bell won't hold out of the Steelers' training camp -- unless he will. He won't skip any regular season games in 2018 -- unless he does. He wants to stay in Pittsburgh -- as long as he gets the right contract.
Got all of that?
Welcome to the ever-changing world of Bell, an evanescent personality to be sure. He's a modern-day Terry Bradshaw, often contradicting himself within the confines of the same conversation.
So it was Wednesday night when he invited fans for a 30-minute live video chat via his Instagram account.
Bell, who had the franchise tag placed on him by the Steelers for the second consecutive year on Tuesday, remains unhappy he doesn't have a long-term contract with the team.
“I'm not going to sit out,” Bell said. “I'm going to be in the facility Week 1. It's going to be a rerun of last year. I'm not going to camp. I'm not doing nothing else extra, OTAs, none of that. I'm going to strictly go to what I have to go to. I want to win every game. I want to have the best statistical career that I can, so I want to play in every game that I can possibly say.”
If that were the case, Bell would skip all of the team's offseason activities and training camp and show up a few days before the season to sign his tender offer of $14.5 million, as he did last year. The only difference is that his contract last year was $12.1 million.
Oh, and along the way, he would turn down a long-term deal that would make him the highest-paid running back in the league, as he did last year when he took a hard pass on a five-year, $60-million contract.
That was different than what he told Billboard magazine in an interview released Monday. At that point, Bell said he might skip games rather than play for the franchise tag. And at the end of last season, he told ESPN.com he would consider retirement if the franchise tag was placed on him again.
“Me saying I was going to sit out was more emotional at the time,” Bell said Wednesday. “When I was asked the question, that's the way I felt at the time. I might come in Week 1. I might come in Week 4. I don't know what week I'm going to come in, but I'm going to play this year, though. I'm going to play. I just don't know when I'm going to play.”
But said he remains confident he and the Steelers can come to a long-term agreement before any of that happens. But either way, he knows he's going to be with the Steelers in 2018.
"I am going to stay in Pittsburgh because for one, I don't have an option," Bell said. "For two, I want to stay in Pittsburgh. So that's the ultimate goal is to get that done, but that's just the way business goes so who really knows what's going to happen?"
Since Adrian Peterson signed a seven-year, $100-million contract with the Vikings in 2011, running back contracts have bottomed out. Bell's franchise tag last year made him the highest-paid running back in the league by $4 million. And the Falcons' Devonta Freeman signed a five-year, $41.25-million contract last year that is now the richest long-term deal at the position.
“I'm a guy who has to stand firm at what I really feel I'm valued at so the running back market can be where it needs to be,” Bell said. “Running back is an important position. On average, we have the shortest shelf life. I think the fact people do say that we have to get everything we can when we are in the prime of our career because we don't play as long so we don't make as much money. Running backs need that respect, there's no ifs, ands and buts about it.”