It’s official. If the Black and Gold do anything this season, they’re gonna have to do it without one third of the Killer Bs.
Pittsburgh Steelers superstar running back Le’Veon Bell has a torn MCL and has been placed on IR, ending his 2015 season. Chalk another one up for the “NFL Insiders.” When Bell was carted off the field, word was the Steelers were optimistic there was no damage to his ACL. I have no idea how a knee works but amazingly he didn’t damage the ACL at all, which would’ve been awesome if he didn’t shred his MCL.
I guess I shouldn’t say “shred” since I have no idea how damaged his MCL is. We’ll know when/if he undergoes surgery. From my understanding, the MCL is a much larger and stronger ligament than the ACL. As we saw with Big Ben, almost any damage short of a major tear heals with simple rest and rehab.
With Bell down, the running game falls to DeAngelo Williams. Williams actually led the league in rushing through the first two games when Bell was serving his pot suspension so he’s not a scrub. He’s not Bell, either. However, the Steelers are in far better position this year than during last year’s Wild Card game where the team were forced to start Josh Harris. The team signed Isiah Pead for depth behind back-up Richard Todman as Dri Archer continues to employ some unknown blackmail in order to waste a roster spot.
Looking toward the future, even if Bell needs surgery he should be pretty much recovered by next season. I am in no way suggesting the Steelers cut bait on him since we’ve seen guys return from more serious injuries and barely miss a beat. However, this is the third significant injury in the three years he’s been here. I like Williams but I really think the Steelers need to think hard about using an early round pick on a RB next year because at the rate he’s going, I’d be petrified of giving him a long-term contract. Sooner or later one of these injuries is gonna affect his play and we already flushed enough cap space down the toilet as it is.
This has been a hellish season for the Steelers. Every team deals with injuries so I usually dismiss that excuse but I’ve never seen a team lose so many key players one after the other. That they’re 4-4 is something of a minor miracle. They’ll need a few more before it’s all over.