It is fair to assume that when the Pittsburgh Steelers placed the franchise tag on Le’Veon Bell this year, they did so believing that, should they fail to reach a deal, he would still report on-time for the regular season opener as he did the year before.
Had they known otherwise, they would have made bolder moves in the offseason beyond re-signing Stevan Ridley and Fitzgerald Toussaint and using a fifth-round draft pick on Jaylen Samuels, who did not see a lot of traditional running back work at NC State.