The Steelers have a pair of high-profile situations that everyone in the league will be watching. And there doesn't seem to be many ways they work out well for the Steelers.
Wide receiver Antonio Brown and running back Le'Veon Bell, who just last spring were both voted in the top five of NFL.com's top 100 players for 2018, seem to be on their way out of Pittsburgh.
Coupled with the loss of inside linebacker Ryan Shazier, who voted No. 47 on that list of top 100 players, and the Steelers will see a serious drain in talent over the next few months from where they were at the beginning of the 2017 season.
"It’s tough. Three good players," Art Rooney II said Wednesday. "That’s one reason why we haven’t made any decisions on Antonio yet. The running back position, I feel good about. It looks like we have two good, young players at that position. I feel we’re in pretty good shape there. The linebacker position is still something we need to address."
Rooney said he has still heard nothing from Brown, who skipped out on the team in the final week of the regular season, showing up on game day after having his agent, Drew Rosenhaus, call Mike Tomlin that morning. Tomlin informed Rosenhaus the Steelers had no intention of playing Brown after he had refused to report for an MRI after telling the team he had a knee injury, then didn't return phone calls from Tomlin or Rooney the Friday or Saturday before the game.
"That part is disappointing," Rooney said of Brown's failure to have a conversation. "I would have liked to have the opportunity to talk to him and see where he is. Maybe that will happen at some point. Who knows?"
Rooney said last week the Steelers won't release Brown, who has three years remaining on his current contract, but are open to trading him. He also said at that time it is hard to envision Brown being with the Steelers in 2019.
Rooney said Brown did "just enough" under the league's rules to get his $58,000 paycheck for that final week of the season by reporting on game day and that he was paid for that game. But he also said he didn't see and hasn't seen Brown as the distraction some have viewed him, despite the Steelers having to discipline him on several occasions.
"The situation changed the last week of the season. You start talking about that period, from then until now, it’s a different story," Rooney said. "Prior to that, was he a distraction, was he a problem? For the most part, I would say he wasn’t a distraction to this team. Obviously that changed the last week of the season. I’m very disappointed in the way that happened."
But he said Wednesday the team has not formulated an asking price for the star receiver and no teams have yet reached out to the Steelers to express an interest. The Steelers can't trade Brown until the new league year begins March 13. Brown is due a $2.5 million roster bonus on March 17. He counts $22.1 million against the team's salary cap in 2019, but would count $21.1 million if he's traded before June 1, a savings of $1 million.
Rooney would like to talk to Brown before anything happens, but doesn't expect that to occur.
"We have left everything open at this point. There aren’t many signs out there (a conversation) is going to happen," Rooney said. "But we haven’t made any decisions and we’re going to take our time. There are no real decisions that need to be made until the middle of March. We’ll take our time."
The same goes for Bell.
The Steelers placed the franchise tag on Bell for the second consecutive season in 2018 after he played on the tag in 2017 at a salary of $12.1 million. But Bell refused to report in 2018, skipping out on a salary of $14.5 million.
The Steelers went into the 2018 season with the feeling Bell would report just prior to the start of the year, as he had done the previous year. But he did not and the situation hung over the team for half of the season.
"It’s hard to say that, knowing what you know now. If you know the guy is going to hold out the whole season? How do you know that? How often does that happen in the history of the National Football League?" Rooney asked. "To sit here and say, you should have known? I didn’t expect that. I’m guilty of not expecting that to happen. What can I say?"
There has been some thought within the organization of placing the transition tag on Bell in 2019 to give the Steelers first right of refusal on any contract offer he might get. But there would likely be a battle between the Steelers and the NFLPA over compensation regarding that tag since no player has ever been franchise tagged and then had the transition tag placed on him.
"We’re not closing any doors at this point. Don’t have to close any doors at this point," Rooney said of Bell.
Shazier, meanwhile, continues to rehab from a severe spinal cord injury suffered Dec. 4, 2017 in Cincinnati. He just completed the final season of his contract with the Steelers, which paid him $8.26 million.
Shazier spent the entire season rehabbing and working with the Steelers, training in both the scouting and coaching departments.
"Ryan still intends to continue to rehab with the intention of coming back to play," Rooney said. "To the extent he wants to do that, we’re open to working that out."
That will not, however, include Shazier working in any paid capacity in 2019 for the Steelers.
"There are some technicalities about someone going from staff to player," Rooney said. "At this point, his goal is still to come back and be a player. We’ll have to address it as time goes on and figure out how that works."