Mike Tomlin remains vague about Le’Veon Bell’s future with Steelers

Mike Tomlin didn’t shut the door on Le’Veon Bell returning to the Pittsburgh Steelers. But he didn’t exactly go out of his way to embrace the idea, either.

While the storyline that dominated the Steelers for much of 2018 had died down since Bell did not sign the team’s franchise tag tender by an NFL deadline in November, the Steelers’ Pro Bowl running back remains property of the organization and won’t be eligible for free agency until March.

But Bell hitting the market will happen, of course, only if the Steelers don’t apply a franchise or transition tag on him again — or in the extremely unlikely event the two sides come to terms on a long-term contract by then.

Asked specifically if the Steelers have any plans to negotiate with Bell, or if their professional relationship is over, Tomlin on Wednesday sidestepped specifics with Bell — or even mentioning him by name.

“We are in process of assessing and reviewing what happened in ‘18, and appropriately so,” Tomlin said, “and we are going to pause before we start talking about development of ’19. And that includes any and all potential free agents and things of that nature from a personnel standpoint, from a coaching standpoint. I just don’t have a lot of answers along those lines as we stand here today and really don’t want to speculate a lot, because if you’re legitimately open to doing what’s necessary that we are not here next year at this time, then you better leave it open-ended that you intend to that.”

Hey, Steelers Nation, get the latest news about the Pittsburgh Steelers here.

Chris Adamski is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Chris at cadamski@tribweb.com or via Twitter @C_AdamskiTrib.