He was top 3 in yards from scrimmage for the first half of his career. Well before Bell came.

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Be well

GO BEARS!!!

The Steelers seem just...done. Tuitt and Heyward both look beat, replacing Shazier with Bostic has torn out their heart, Haden can barely keep up anymore and he's their best secondary player by far. Dupree and Watt are just not productive pass rushers and with Heyward and Tuitt so spent they look even worse.

Offensively AB is very simply not the best WR in football anymore. 35th in yards and his yards per reception is runningback tier. Moreso he just doesn't look the part anymore. Ben still has it somehow but he's still not what he once was. They are a dying star with or without Bell and if they lose to Atlanta this week I don't see them climbing out of a 1-4-1 crater.

But it's increase in usage is undeniably attributed to the last 5 years & same time as Pitt started using him as a dual threat primarily and not as a check down option.

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My point is Bell isn't going to save them and wouldn't be able to even if he started the season with them. He's not an all-time great either. That's crazy talk. Marshall Faulk, a player much better than Bell, fell off after 28. I would not guarantee any money to Bell after that age 28 season.

I'll give you that the alignment is different in recent years.

But Craig wasn't a check down 80 times a year. They were designing that as part of their offense.

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You know me like that.

There's nothing so far to suggest Bell is not in Faulk's area. His per game numbers are insane. But yes that's who we are talking about here and its crazy Pitt isn't working that into the next two years window at most they have with Ben anyway. I think Brown is gonna be great for awhile regardless but unless they get lucky this window ends with Ben. It's dumb they aren't keeping Bell to finish it.

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Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
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I wasn't trying to say it was unprecedented. Just that the frequency and effectiveness of it league wide has been and I think it's fair to attribute a lot of that to the success Pitt has had using Bell in a copycat league.

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I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

I will agree to agree.

Are we allowed to do that here?

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You know me like that.

You have to admit that AB has taken a big step back.

Le'veon has played in 16 games once (he has played in 15 games too, which I'll mention). Reliability is part of the equation.

Nope. He's as good as ever. WR2's next to star WR1's performing great is a league wide trend. I also agree with the commonly expressed concern they aren't going down field to him enough. But again, that can also be directly traced to Bell not occupying the middle of the defense's attention.

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Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
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He's not and the Steelers are very plainly telling you that with their playcalling and offensive scheme.

Not really. See my previous post.

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Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
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I respect the player's right to exercise his collectively bargained rights.

I respect the player's teammates being allowed to express their opinion on the matter without fear of union retribution, even if the teammates' opinion is that he's a giant asswipe who is costing them a chance at playing meaningful playoff football while they risk getting hurt each week.

I think both the union leadership and the owners are complete dumbasses for collectively bargaining that a player can hold out until week 11. A tagged player should have until the end of week 4 (so 11:59pm Pacific on Monday) to decide to return to the team under the tag or Al Harris the year but become a free agent at the end of it unless he is tagged again.

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"When people want their version of the truth, they go find it, no matter how baseless their beliefs." -- Ken Rosenthal

It's time for the franchise tag to go.

Agreed. Seems like a shitty compromise on both sides.

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Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
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I always thought Todd Bell was the bigger absence that year.

Loved Todd Bell.

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I was going to say this week but Atlanta has nobody left, but next time Pittsburgh plays a real secondary see who the #1 CB is on. Bet it won't be AB. 50 and 67 yards against the vaunted Chiefs and Bucs is not the work of the NFL's best WR. He had a nice run.

Ok. Good talk.

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I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

Wasn't Reggie Bush the original Antonio Brown?

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No. No he was not.

I meant Bell

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What exactly is the owners' risk? Only New England and Dallas are sitting in almost totally privately funded stadium complexes. And only a hapless schmo like Mark Davis can fuck up a cash cow. Which is what these teams are with the tv, radio and licensing money.

The third generation Rooney are running things in a manner befitting their collective sense of entitlement. And they're blowing it right now. Boo f-ing hoo.

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There are only two examples of infinity: The universe and human stupidity and I'm not sure about the universe.

So...the players should get paid more because the stadiums are publicly financed? Explain that one to me.

AB does look a step slow, but it may be frustration. The bigger problems are that the OL needed Bell than the other way and it's more apparent each week, and that Big Ben is about as consistent or accurate as 2017 (Pro Bowl QB) Trubisky.

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There are only two examples of infinity: The universe and human stupidity and I'm not sure about the universe.

Sure. That's not unfair. When I think receiving RB's usually I think of little guys like Westbrook and Ray Rice but Bell and Bush were two guys who were not so diminutive in size but still had that burst and quickness. Even Faulk doesn't quite have that same receiver's build those two had, though I would not ever call Marshall Faulk undersized.

Bush had a nice career, Bell's will obviously be better but anyone who says the Saints blew that pick is an idiot.

Roethlisberger led the league in passing yards through week 4 (Luck nudged past him on Thursday Night so as of this moment Ben is second) and has completed 65% of his passes. The assertion that Ben has not created enough yards to go around is ridiculous.

Mike was referring to the mythical owners risk and that's primarily what I was responding to.

And financing aside, $5MM guaranteed for next year and essentially 0 after that is a ridiculously one sided deal to a team that will ride him to death.

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There are only two examples of infinity: The universe and human stupidity and I'm not sure about the universe.

Spoken like someone who hasn't actually watched the games. But yards is a secondary stat imo, more telling about the 1st half failures that force 50-60 throws to catch up. Especially with the guy whose passed are too often way off target.

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There are only two examples of infinity: The universe and human stupidity and I'm not sure about the universe.

No.

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul