Le’Veon Bell’s inevitable decision became official Tuesday when the 26-year-old running back chose not to report to the Steelers and sign his franchise tender before the deadline. He will sit out the entire 2018 season in hopes of hitting free agency in 2019.
In deciding not to play this season, Bell ultimately is mitigating three risks: the chance of injury, the chance of ineffectiveness and the chance of overuse.
Here we examine those three risks to determine whether Bell made the right decision from a financial standpoint.
MORE: Bell claimed he loved Steelers but had funny way of showing it
Risk of injury
Running backs are close to the top of the NFL in injury rates. Last year, about 25 percent of running backs landed on either injured reserve or the physically unable to perform list. Eighteen percent are on reserve after 10 weeks this year.
Of course, there are varying degrees of injury. Many do not require a long recovery time and do not hamper a contract negotiation. For example, David Johnson missed almost all of last season yet signed a contract extension in September worth $13 million per year. Roughly half of RB injuries turn out this way.
The other half are the injuries that require…
