Why the **** is Jessie Bates not signed yet?

[George Cantstandya]

(04-20-2022, 06:05 PM)Whatever Wrote: Bell won the standoff with Pittsburgh.  He sat the year and they didn't tag him the following year.  He then became the 2nd highest paid RB in the league and got more guaranteed money than what Pittsburgh's entire offer was.  

Just copy and pasting an old post of mine here:

(11-22-2021, 01:52 PM)George Cantstandya Wrote: According to Sports Illustrated here is what the Steelers offered Bell:   
 
https://www.si.com/nfl/2019/03/20/leveon-bell-i-was-so-close-signing-steelers-final-contract-offer

5 years, 70 million, 14 million per year, with 10 million guaranteed as a signing bonus, and 33 million of the contract being paid out the first 2 years.   I have seen other articles that say the guarantee was 20 million (10 million signing bonus and 10 million roster bonus) so the exact details are a little murky.

According to SpoTrac:
https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/baltimore-ravens/leveon-bell-12329/

The Jets gave him a 4 years, 52.5 million with 27 million guaranteed.  

Then of course he only played for the Jets for a year and few months then signed small contracts with the Chiefs and Ravens. According to Spotrac he was paid 15 million by the Jets for 2019 and 13 million for 2020 they owed him when they cut him in October of 2020.

So he didn't get paid for one year while he sat out then with the Jets made 28 million.  Since being cut by the Jets he has earned about another 1 million with other teams. Now if he had taken the Steelers offer it makes one wonder if he would have made more money.  He had less guaranteed, 10 million, but if the above is true would have made 33 million had he been able to stay on the Steelers roster for 2 seasons.  Plus he would not have had that year with no pay.  Had he stunk it up or been injured and the Steelers cut him after one year it looks like he would have made less than he did with the Jets.

From what I understand he went for the guaranteed money and that was his big issue for not taking the Steelers offer.  Given that he has not been playing well at all maybe taking that larger guarantee worked out for him in the long run.  There are some what-ifs for sure.  Maybe if he had taken the Steelers offer he would have played better there or maybe they would have held on to him for more than one season thus paying out at least that 33 million.   Also how much did he lose in investments for that year he sat out when he could have made 10's of millions had he taken the Steelers offer?    Lastly a quick search shows that Pennsylvania state tax is significantly lower than New Jersey. So he probably lost a fair bit to taxes compared to PA.  

From the above my opinion is that he probably ended up making less than he would have had he taken the Steelers offer.  I don't think they would have cut him after one season unless he was absolutely horrible or hurt.   He probably ended up paying a lot more in state taxes and also lost a year of earnings that could have been invested.  

Disclaimer:  I don't understand all the ins and outs of NFL contracts which often seem complex.  This is just a post made on what I looked up based on the information I could find and my thoughts on it.

From a 2020 article:

https://www.sportingnews.com/ca/nfl/news/leveon-bell-got-lots-of-money-from-jets-for-little-work-but-still-sold-himself-short/cka9dh9vf1yi1g1xvtyg9lw2y

Quote:Bell did not earn $28,031,250 just from 2019 through the initial 31 percent of the 2020 season. Because he sat out 2018 and earned nothing, one must factor that into the equation. Assuming Bell signs to play the remainder of this year, it most likely will be for a paltry amount. For the moment, though, his annual salary over the past three years comes to $9,343,750.

Had he signed the 2017 Steelers deal, it’s possible he would have banked $57 million since, an average of $14.25 million. Had he accepted the 2018 offer after playing a year on the franchise tag, he’d have been at the same cumulative total, with the prospect of two more high-earning years to follow.

So I guess you can say he won the standoff if he was banking on himself to suck for the rest of his career and just get paid. It is of my opinion he actually cost himself a lot of money.  Sorry, let's get back on topic.