Steelers coach Mike Tomlin, on his relationship with Le'Veon Bell: 'I have none'

Mike Tomlin isn’t sentimental about facing former Pittsburgh Steelers running back Le’Veon Bell.

Bell, who held out the 2018 season rather than play on the franchise tag, will face his former team Sunday for the first time since signing as a free agent with the New York Jets.

The Steelers coach was asked Tuesday at his weekly news conference about his relationship with Bell, who spent his first five seasons with the Steelers prior to his holdout.

“I have none,” Tomlin said. “I don’t communicate with him. He’s a New York Jet.”

Bell hasn’t put up the same kind of numbers with the Jets.

In his last season (2017) with the Steelers, Bell ranked second in the NFL in yards from scrimmage. This season, he ranks 24th.He has 676 yards rushing, averaging 3.3 yards per carry, and has caught 57 passes for 404 yards and a touchdown.

Bell also missed a game with an illness, then made headlines when he went all-night bowling the night before the game.

Tomlin, though, was complimentary of what Bell has accomplished with the Jets.

“He’s got a complete game,” he said. “He can run inside. He can run outside. He’s a big-time inclusion in their passing game, whether it’s out of the backfield or whether they remove him from the backfield and he’s route-running in empty sets. We have to minimize his impact on the game when it’s flowing through him.”

Given the Steelers’ history with Bell, would they have an advantage Sunday because they know the running back’s tendencies?

“I don’t have to tackle him. I don’t have a lot to worry about,” Tomlin said. “Tackling him is the issue. His teammates have seen him in training-camp like setting. It won’t be the first time those guys had a chance to combat him in those ways.

“We respect Le’Veon. We know the type of competitor he is. We know he’s going to answer the bell and be L-Bell in the game, and it’s our job to minimize that.”

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