It's a rough time to be a Pittsburgh Steelers fan. It was announced this week that wide receiver Antonio Brown and team president Art Rooney II agreed that it is time for the two parties to part ways. Now, it appears as though the team will also lose out of running back Le'Veon Bell. Of course, Bell held out all of last season because of a contract dispute. This offseason, the Steelers could have hit Bell with either the franchise or transition tag, which would give the Steelers control over contract negotiations. Now though, it appears as though the team will not hit him with any sort of tag and are actually letting him become a free agent, according to ESPN.
"Le'Veon is still a great player," Pittsburgh Steelers GM Kevin Colbert told reporters. "We can't afford to use any other type of tags. Le'Veon will be an unrestricted free agent at the start of the new league year."
Colbert also talked about how the team is about to lose Antonio Brown to a trade, which is as he described, "disappointing."
"We're all disappointed we're at this point. How things transpired, we're all disappointed," Colbert said. "Respectfully, we did agree [that looking] into a trade would probably be the best course of action for both sides. .... By no means are we going to make a trade or any type of move that will not be beneficial to the Pittsburgh Steelers organization. We will not be discounting you on the trade market and we will not release you."
The Steelers finished this season with a 9-6-1 record and just barely missed the playoffs.
