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Question: Are we SURE LeVeon is better than Conner?

Steelers12 said:
Not even close. Sanders played with some awful Lions teams and behind some terrible OLines. Some of his greatest runs were just avoiding defenders in the backfield to just get back to the line of scrimmage. Emmitt used to run behind huge holes and Bus played with great Steeler OLines. Put Barry on the Cowboys or the Steelers and he destroys the numbers both Bus and Emmitt put up. Barry was the focus og=f every defense he ever played against, Bus and Emmitt had HOF QBs and HOF Wrs to play with, Barry, not so much.
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Not to mention that Sanders spent most of his career in the run and shoot spread offense, which was not conducive to consistent running success.

He finally got a lead blocker in a more conventional offense in 1997 and rushed for 2000 yards.

The crazy thing is that was his 9th season. Most backs are completely washed up within five seasons, let alone having their career year in their 9th.
 
Bell better not see the field until late in the 4th quarter after Conner has already sealed a win. If he does, he needs booed mercilessly.

Conner should have his contract renegotiated in the offseason, I don't care how many years are left on the current deal. What's he making 500K a season?
Basically what Bell would have made in 3 quarters. That new deal should have money earned on it from this past season - at least 3 or 4 of Bell's missed game checks.

I don't want to see Bell on the field and getting any meaningful carries. He can sit the bench or cover kicks. His choice.
 
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I'm looking forward to next season when Bell's numbers drop off drastically and Conner continues to shine.
 
TDX27 said:
The crew on the game just showed stats with and without Bell since 2015 and every stat was either even or better without Bell. More points and yards per game without him and both near 70% win percentage. I honestly wouldn't play Bell if he comes back. Put him in for game clean up.
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That's simple, when Bell is here Tomlin forces everything through him, when Bell isn't around the offense has to go through Ben, and the offense will be better when your franchise QB is the focal point.
Bell definitely isn't 14 million dollars better

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Steelers are looking extremely wise by not giving into Bell's contract demands. I hope Conner's performance makes other teams think twice before dumping a load of money on him and he loses more than he would have had if he had just signed the offer. He already needs a much bigger deal just to break even considering all he's lost so far.
 
Bell is a special talent and Conner is proving to be quite the player himself. There are strengths and weaknesses to each player, but right now I like what Conner is able to bring in terms of his speed and knack for finding the end zone. As he did at Pitt, he also a special ability to put his team on his back when they need a scoring drive. He did that today. We've seen that from Bell too, especially in his back-to-back playoff games a couple of years ago, but the way Conner carries himself, he seems to lift the entire team.
 
VaSteelerFan said:
Bell better not see the field until late in the 4th quarter after Conner has already sealed a win. If he does, he needs booed mercilessly.

Conner should have his contract renegotiated in the offseason, I don't care how many years are left on the current deal. What's he making 500K a season?
Basically what Bell would have made in 3 quarters. That new deal should have money earned on it from this past season - at least 3 or 4 of Bell's missed game checks.

I don't want to see Bell on the field and getting any meaningful carries. He can sit the bench or cover kicks. His choice.
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**** that, you don't give him a choice.............................................




Salute the nation
 
Sometimes we tend to forget how productive James actually was at Pitt. I thought at the time he was an absolute steal in the draft and most just looked at him as a backup to MeVeon. Now he’s showing what he was at Pitt, a feature back. Hard, violent runner who inflicts pain on defenders. Breaks lots of tackles, has good speed and has done an excellent job improving his receiving and blocking skills. And an overall nice,humble young man who is taking full advantage of this great opportunity. He worked hard in the off season when all the attention was on MeVeon and the monster contract everyone thought he would sign. James persevered and didn’t get distracted and here we are. May have damn well saved our season.


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VaSteelerFan said:
Bell better not see the field until late in the 4th quarter after Conner has already sealed a win. If he does, he needs booed mercilessly.

Conner should have his contract renegotiated in the offseason, I don't care how many years are left on the current deal. What's he making 500K a season?
Basically what Bell would have made in 3 quarters. That new deal should have money earned on it from this past season - at least 3 or 4 of Bell's missed game checks.

I don't want to see Bell on the field and getting any meaningful carries. He can sit the bench or cover kicks. His choice.
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As a fan I can completely understand the anger at Bell. He took a calculated risk, and for me it's backfiring on him. The notion that Connor needs a new deal is ridiculous though. He was still there where they picked him for a reason, having a good season doesn't mean effing up your cap to redo his deal. Brown outplayed his rookie contract by a huge margin, everybody gets their turn to get paid. He will get his too.
 
stillwright said:
Especially our OL is now blocking for Conner. When Bell enters the game how effective will they be run blocking for Bell with the way he hesitates during his runs?
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Chris Hoke made the point that Conner is easier to block for because he doesn’t hesitate nearly as much or often.
 
steelhurt said:
Sometimes we tend to forget how productive James actually was at Pitt. I thought at the time he was an absolute steal in the draft and most just looked at him as a backup to MeVeon. Now he’s showing what he was at Pitt, a feature back. Hard, violent runner who inflicts pain on defenders. Breaks lots of tackles, has good speed and has done an excellent job improving his receiving and blocking skills. And an overall nice,humble young man who is taking full advantage of this great opportunity. He worked hard in the off season when all the attention was on MeVeon and the monster contract everyone thought he would sign. James persevered and didn’t get distracted and here we are. May have damn well saved our season.


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He had 1st round talent but the cancer clouded his availability.

His pass catching was suspect. His blocking so so.

We did see running ability flashes last year.

But then the off-season.

Loss of weight, run blocking practice, and a incredible change in pass catching, molded him into a better version of the attractive college version pre-disease.

He will never be as shifty as Bell. But he is a better inside power runner. And those weaknesses of last year have disappeared.

A great story rounding up to be a even greater success story.

Conner strong, damn good showing James.
 
I certainly don't trust Bell to put himself in harms way to save our QB in pass protection under the current circumstances. The margin between the two is very thin, but I trust James...can't say that for Bell anymore.

James has earned the job, Bell comes in only to spell Conner as needed...he can save himself for someone who cares
 
Really simple Bell is a great back and Conner is proving himself to be a great back also..
 
I think Bell and his agent are going to be shocked at how little they're offered this off season and wishing they could have signed the Steelers contract when they had the chance.

Every game that Conner preforms like this puts the lie to the notion that Bell is some generational talent worth breaking the bank for. I very much see a repeat of James Harrison where the player/agent have grossly over blown sense of their market value and most teams offer Bell a modest but not top dollar contract and he has to sign for less than what the Steelers have been offering.

Seriously how does another teams GM not point to what Conner has done behind the Steelers line and not ask Bell why he thinks he's worth breaking the bank?

Bell will NOT be the highest paid RB in the league.... I guarantee it.
 
TWEEK1106 said:
I think Bell and his agent are going to be shocked at how little they're offered this off season and wishing they could have signed the Steelers contract when they had the chance.

Every game that Conner preforms like this puts the lie to the notion that Bell is some generational talent worth breaking the bank for. I very much see a repeat of James Harrison where the player/agent have grossly over blown sense of their market value and most teams offer Bell a modest but not top dollar contract and he has to sign for less than what the Steelers have been offering.

Seriously how does another teams GM not point to what Conner has done behind the Steelers line and not ask Bell why he thinks he's worth breaking the bank?

Bell will NOT be the highest paid RB in the league.... I guarantee it.
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Agree 100% Plus Bell is just throwing away money right now . I would be shocked if a team gave him over 12 mil / year now. Taking as much time off as he has may also impact his "burst." I would seriously put him on special teams duty if he returns.
 
Why the continued talk, who cares, Bell does not want to be here, the team SHOULD not want him here , lets get off Bell.
 
We are now 7 games in. Even if Bell comes back this week, he doesn't have a chance to play for 2 to 3 weeks as he will sit for 2. That puts us a potentially week 10 at the best for Bell to even play. I stay with Conner and bring Bell in for clean up situations and let him start in the last game of the season to give Conner a day off. Let him get a taste of riding the pine and we will be losing nothing by doing so.
 
Saw it during the live telecast, but man, looking at the replay made it even more clear: On Conner's first TD run, AB simply dominated the CB and shoved him out of the way like he was a shopping cart. Great block by AB.
 
slashsteel said:
He had 1st round talent but the cancer clouded his availability.

His pass catching was suspect. His blocking so so.

We did see running ability flashes last year.

But then the off-season.

Loss of weight, run blocking practice, and a incredible change in pass catching, molded him into a better version of the attractive college version pre-disease.

He will never be as shifty as Bell. But he is a better inside power runner. And those weaknesses of last year have disappeared.

A great story rounding up to be a even greater success story.

Conner strong, damn good showing James.
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The stats I find say that Connor has 599 yards rushing, which probably does not include today's game. Therefore this season Connor has at least 599 more rushing yards than Bell does.
 
Steeltime said:
Still don't get why that block would be considered anything other than good football.

It was not "blindside." Burfdefect was looking right at JuJu when he was crushed. He did not use his helmet, or go for Burdefect's head, like Defect does on every tackle.

Good, clean, awesome hit.
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JuJu was penalized and fined for taunting not the block if I recall correctly.

Papillon
 
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