Steelers put Super Bowl goal in focus with Antonio Brown, Le'Veon Bell moves

The Pittsburgh Steelers are looking ahead, seeing the landscape, and making sound business decisions.

The franchise locked up all-pro wide receiver Antonio Brown on Monday to a new five-year deal that keeps him with the team through 2021. Earlier in the day, Pittsburgh also placed the exclusive franchise tag on star running back Le’Veon Bell – meaning he is not allowed to negotiate with anyone but the Steelers.

The deal makes Brown the highest-paid receiver in the league, at $68 million over four seasons, USA TODAY Sports’ Tom Pelissero has confirmed. Bell’s franchise tag is essentially a one-year agreement that is expected to be just north of $12 million – unless the two sides agree to a long-term deal by July 15.

The message sent in Bell’s case is that the two sides simply need more time to reach an agreement that will keep Bell in Pittsburgh for the next several years.

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Sure, the Steelers doled out a lot of salary cap space Monday, but either player – on the open market – would likely fetch even more, given the bidding war that would ensue among interested teams.

Pittsburgh knows that the NFL’s salary cap keeps soaring, with the 2017 figure to be expected to be between $166 million and $170 million. That’s an eight-figure jump from 2016’s mark of $155.27 million. (The Steelers went into Monday with approximately $36 million in cap space to work with.)

As league revenues keep soaring, so does the amount teams have to spend on their players.

And with unique, star talents like Brown and Bell already on the roster, the shrewd move is to keep them on the team until their skills diminish. Brown is 28 years old. Bell is 25. They are either at or are about to enter their primes. They are players whose talents are irreplaceable.

There’s always the chance that if either player were to eventually hit free agency, they would still re-sign with the Steelers.

But the astute and practical play – from the team’s perspective – is to never let the temptation of other franchises and potentially more lucrative contracts get in the way. The Steelers are effectively keeping Brown and Bell from ever testing those waters, and it’s smart business, and they’re doing it on their terms.

Then there’s the quarterback factor.

When you consider that Ben Roethlisberger will turn 35 next month and will play in his 14th season – even though he hasn’t officially said he will be back – it makes even more sense for the Steelers to secure two of the best skill position players in the NFL.

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With each passing season, Pittsburgh’s window narrows.

The Steelers have made the playoffs three seasons in a row but lost to the eventual Super Bowl champion New England Patriots in the AFC Championship Game this season.

It’s clear that there’s plenty of talent on the roster to compete for titles.

Think the timing is curious, given Brown’s Facebook Live incident – in which he publicly broadcast the postgame locker room speech coach Mike Tomlin gave after Pittsburgh beat the Kansas City Chiefs in the divisional round – and subsequent fallout?

“I think that’s why often times you see great players move around from team to team,” Tomlin said after the incident. “I definitely don’t want that to be his story. I’m sure he doesn’t want that to be his story, so he has to address these things that have put him and us, in time to time, in settings as such where it needs to be addressed.”

That quote came in a news conference just one month and 10 days ago. The bottom line is money talks. Questions about Brown’s character may still be there, even with this massive deal, but NFL teams just don’t let talent – especially all-pro talent – walk out the door.

So Brown is already locked up. Bell should be next.

That lets the Steelers focus their full attention on shoring up a roster that has just a few holes – linebacker and tight end chief among them.

Because with key players paid and happy, a Super Bowl may not be far off.

Follow Lorenzo Reyes on Twitter @LorenzoGReyes.

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