Love him or hate him, fresh Lev could lead Steelers to promised land.

Despite his attitude, Le'Veon Bell could be a huge complement to the emerging James Conner if he returns to the Steelers this season (Photo creds to Complex)

By Donny Chedrick
We're all tired of Le’Veon Bell.

It’s understandable. The guy has toyed with the Steelers since early in the off-season when he refused to sign his franchise tender for 2018. Steelers fans either want the Steelers to trade Bell or not play Bell even if he does come back to the team this year, but I'd advise trying to look at things from a different perspective. If Bell wants his money, he could do that while also helping the Steelers achieve their goal of a seventh Lombardi Trophy.

There are many “ifs” that go into this situation, but the expectation is that the star running back will return to the Steelers by Week 10 to satisfy his year of service in the NFL. If he doesn't do so, Bell could be hit with the dreaded franchise tag again next year. Bell is the last person that would want to deal with that, therefore, I don’t see it as a very likely possibility. To our knowledge, the Steelers haven't received a trade proposal that is intriguing enough for them or Bell, but that doesn't mean he isn’t a hot commodity amongst NFL teams.

Those teams are aware that the Steelers are growing tired of Bell and likely won't reach a deal with him at the end of the year. It's possible that a desperate franchise will give Bell his desired $17+ million in the off-season, but he still must prove something to NFL teams. So, part of that leads to the next “if.”

If Bell can play well with others upon his return, he will help himself the Steelers. In his absence, Pittsburgh's rushing attack has been led by fan-favorite and cancer survivor, James Conner. As much of an inspiration Conner has been off the field, he’s becoming a pretty good player on it as well. Through the first part of the season, Conner has been up to par with what Bell did in the first part of 2017-2018. In a tweet by Adam Spinks prior to this past Sunday's win over Cleveland-- in which Conner put up 212 yards of today offense--  a side-by-side comparison of Bell's 2017 and Conner's 2018 is shown, and the numbers are staggeringly close.

Bell has the advantage of rushing and receiving success by just a few percentage points, but Conner has a higher percentage of 10, 15 and 20+ yard rushes – coming in with 5% of his carries going for 20+ over the course of the first six weeks of 2018, opposed to a measly 1 percent of Bell’s carries going for 20+ yards last season in the same time span. Some other key ingredients to stew over are the short-yardage conversion (3rd or 4th down and 3 or less) numbers as well as the amount of times the two ran the football with over eight defenders in the box. Conner has a significant lead in both. 71 percent of the time through the first six weeks Conner converted on short-yardage situations compared to Bell converting those same situations 66 percent of the time.

Now, this isn’t saying that Conner is a better back than Bell, but it shows that Bell’s replacement can hold his own. Therefore, the most exciting part is if/when these two share a backfield. Getting Bell back will give the Steelers two potent runners with different styles that create a true one-two punch behind Ben Roethlisberger. If the two runners can play well together, big rushing numbers could come out of the Pittsburgh backfield.

Now, the final “if.”

If Conner's numbers begin to flatten and his play starts to deteriorate towards the end of the regular season, Bell can be there to light a spark and carry the Steelers offense. A case could be made in the past that Bell was the single-most important piece to the team’s success. Whether or not that is true, Bell could make people believe again if he were to step in and show his skills predominantly as a solo act yet again.

Something that every team looks for when the season nears the end is a set of fresh legs. Bell has that. Every team looks for a playmaker near seasons end. Bell is that. Most importantly, the Steelers want a championship, and Bell could help them achieve that.