Once the Jets snag their next head coach, they will stroll into the offseason with $100 million in cap money bulging from their pockets.
So fans will not only expect GM Mike Maccagnan to retool the roster with young studs in the draft, he can also make it rain on free agents like he's Brian Cashman.
The first name beaming from the free-agent marquee will be Le'Veon Bell - the bionic running back with the most complete skill set at his position in the NFL. He's in his prime, and primed to leave Pittsburgh after a pungent and public divorce from the Steelers that would make the McCourts blush. If anyone has incentive to play for pay, it's Bell.
Still, the Jets should pass on the pass-catching halfback who hit 8,000 yards from scrimmage faster than any in league history.
In the interest of candor and clarity, the Steelers aren't just my favorite NFL team, they are my favorite team in any sport. I was weaned on Mean Joe Greene, my blood type pure black and gold. So you may think this sounds like a caustic column from a bitter fan whose heart was broken by Bell's holdout, which rippled up and down the Steelers' roster, and may have played some part in the team missing the playoffs.
Negative. As someone who covers Big Apple sports, life is endlessly better when the local clubs are better. If handing Le'Veon Bell $75 million - including $50 million guaranteed cash - truly made the Jets more likely to reach the Super Bowl, I would be the first to urge the Jets to sign him.
Even with Bell's melodrama, the Steelers were 7-2-1, with backup James Conner among the most productive running backs in the league until he was injured in December. The team tanked largely because they lost to the Broncos and Raiders, made inexplicable mistakes, and have too many divas in positions of power. (Just look at Antonio Brown now demanding a trade after pouting his way out of the lineup before the last game of the season.) The Steelers have become the roaming soap opera of the NFL, endlessly talented yet wholly tormented.
And when Bell demurred from the Steelers' $14 million franchise tag, and sat out the entire season, he made it clear that he was about cash over his comrades. NFL players routinely sit during the summer to negotiate a new contract. It serves the twin-goals of making more money while sparing the player the oppressive heat and possible injuries of training camp.
But Bell was more than posturing. He was telling his teammates that it wasn't enough that he make more money than 51 of the 53 players on the squad. He would only commit to his team in 2018 if the team committed to him well beyond it. Bell was worth every dime of the $14 million. But perhaps you now see why the Steelers - who are notoriously cheap to begin with - didn't give Bell the kind of cash the Rams gave Todd Gurley.
Not only was Bell greedy and selfish, he's also been suspended twice for violating the league's drug policy. So he thought the best way to repair his rep and enter free agency with a conga line of GMs pining for his services was to abandon his team and perhaps his best chance at a Super Bowl ring. Some pundits (such as Colin Cowherd) are calling the 9-6-1 Steelers the most talented team ever to miss the NFL playoffs. Surely Pittsburgh would be prepping for a game this weekend had Bell been on the field this season. And with his position increasingly devalued by an endless stream of mid-round studs - from Alvin Kamara to David Johnson - routinely picked straight out of college, Bell chose the wrong way to burnish his resume. (The Broncos are sending Philip Lindsay to the Pro Bowl, and he wasn't even drafted.)
Do the Jets really want to enter the 2019 season with a new head coach and sophomore QB with Bell as their big offseason splash? Do you want their highest-paid player to be someone who turned down $14 million and left his teammates to hanging at the playoff altar? Bell would ask to be paid at least double what Sam Darnold and Jamal Adams make per year, while being bereft of leadership these young Jets need, a mercenary who spent 2018 riding jet skis in Miami while his gridiron brothers lost the AFC North by half a game.
The Jets are in an enviable spot, ready to blossom in one quick season, their franchise QB in place, a premium draft pick, and mountains of cap space. If Gang Green plays this right, they can leap up the emaciated AFC East in quick order. They need a running back with Le'Veon Bell's athletic splendor, but not his narcissism. Just ask the Steelers.
Twitter: @JasonKeidel
