Kevin Greene Jersey , but if you think the news surrounding the black-and-gold is over — think again. For the drama-filled Steelers, things are just heating up, and this is where the daily links article comes in. You might have missed some key news, and we fill you in and give you the latest, and sometimes greatest, news surrounding the Steelers.Today in the Black-and-gold links article we take a look at how James Conner, despite all his success in 2018, is keeping his head down and working as if he still has to prove himself as a starting running back in the NFL.Let’s get to the news:Don’t tell James Conner he’s Steelers’ RB of the futureBy: Jeremy Fowler, ESPNThe juxtaposition is hard to ignore.While one Pittsburgh Steelers tailback signed hundreds of autographs and posed with Jim Kelly at the Pro Bowl, the other continued to wait for 2019 free agency amid a bitter divorce from the team.But James Conner doesn’t exactly feel settled. His 13 touchdowns in 13 games in his first full season as a starter won’t make him ease up. Nor will Le’Veon Bell’s yearlong holdout, which makes Bell likely too caustic for a locker room return.In efforts to keep the edge that got him this far, Conner will enter his third season with the hunger of a rookie looking for a job.”You’ve got to earn it every day,” he said in late December when asked if he’s the tailback of the Steelers’ future. “It’s never enough when you think you’ve done enough. That’s when you start to get on the decline. ... You’ve got to earn it every day, practice hard and show you belong. I definitely don’t feel like I’ve done enough yet.”That’s exactly what the Steelers like to hear, but Conner is selling himself a bit short. From teammates up to ownership, the Steelers have praised Conner’s development in a sophomore season that included 973 rushing yards Lynn Swann Jersey , 12 rushing TDs and an AFC Offensive Player of the Month award. Conner added 55 catches for 497 yards in a Steelers offense that relied heavily on the back for easy yardage off dump-offs.A player who struggled with conditioning and blitz pickups as a rookie was more than ready when he showed up for his second training camp.Center Maurkice Pouncey didn’t hesitate when asked if Conner has done enough to earn the starting job full-time.”One thousand percent,” Pouncey said. “He’s missed a few games, but his numbers are outstanding. Overall, he’s done everything we’ve asked as far as blocking lanes, picking up blitzes, chipping, running the ball and hitting the right hole. He did a lot of great things. Not that he doesn’t have room to grow, but he’s earned the respect, and he’ll definitely be the No. 1 back.”(To read more, click the link in the headline...)Is this finally the year Alan Faneca gets that Hall of Fame call?By: Ed Bouchette, Pittsburgh Post-GazetteWhat does the Pro Football Hall of Fame have against guards?Coaches have long proclaimed that everything starts in the trenches, but when it comes to the Hall of Fame it certainly does not end there.Guard is the most underappreciated position in the game when it comes to making the Hall of Fame, and the other offensive line positions are not that far behind.Alan Faneca is Exhibit A. He’s one of the most decorated and productive guards in the history of the NFL, but the doors in Canton have remained closed to him for the past three years. This will be his fourth time as a finalist when the vote takes place Feb. 2 in Atlanta for this year’s class.“When you look at the linemen of his era, he did things that Dermonti Dawson was able to do,” said the man who coached both Hines Ward Jersey , Bill Cowher. “He could pull, he was great in space, he could anchor.“When we were a running football team and ran ourselves to a championship, we pretty much ran behind him on the left side and we pulled and ran behind him on the right side.”Jerome Bettis attests to that.“I wouldn’t be in the Hall of Fame without Alan Faneca,” Bettis said. “He was the best guard that I ever played with, and him pulling made him so much more special than I think all the other guards because his ability to pull and play in space was incredible.“In pass protection, he did it all. It wasn’t just in the run game.”(To read more, click the link in the headline...)Tim Benz: Robey-Coleman’s Patriots yap brings back bad Steelers memoriesBy: Tim Benz, Pittsburgh Tribune-ReviewIf you think you’ve heard the name Nickell Robey-Coleman before, you have. He’s the Los Angeles Rams defensive back who was deemed to have had perfectly legal coverage on this play in the NFC Championship Game.After getting away with murder last week, Robey-Coleman is trying to get away with something else this week leading up to the Super Bowl.Blasphemy. The 27-year-old slot corner says New England quarterback Tom Brady is slipping.Among other highlights in an extended interview with Tyler Dunne of Bleacher Report, Robey-Coleman suggests that “age has taken a toll” on Brady.鈥?On Brady: ”For him to still be doing it, that’s a great compliment for him. But I think that he’s definitely not the same quarterback he was. Movement. Speed. Velocity. Arm strength. He still can sling it, but he’s not slinging it as much. Whatever he was doing — because of his age and all that — he’s not doing as much of that anymore. He’s still doing the same things; he’s just not doing as much of it. And sometimes, it’s not the sharpest. But it still gets done.”鈥?On his “hate” toward the Patriots: Robey-Coleman says it goes back to his previous playing days in Buffalo when he saw the Pats rub an opponent’s nose in defeat with “arrogance.” As he describes it in the link, it’s “a-hole stuff” like going for it up 17 points on 4th and 3.鈥?On how the Super Bowl will go: Dunne writes that Robey-Coleman described the bar fight scene in “A Bronx Tale” when the Italian mobsters beat up a biker gang.”We kick ‘em out of the bar Heath Miller Jersey , beat ‘em up — and the one thing he said, he looked down at a guy and said, ‘I did this to you.’ That’s how I want to feel: I did this to you. I did this to you.”Oh. So, I guess the Rams are the mobsters in this analogy and Robey-Coleman is Chazz Palminteri?(To read more, click the link in the headline...) Former Steelers running back Le’Veon Bell walked away from a lot of guaranteed money just to make guaranteed money he likely would have gotten anyway. Does this make him a loser? Yes, but we should all be such losers."If you’re anything like me, you jumped for joy last week when it was revealed that Le’Veon Bell, the former Steelers’ all-everything running back, inked a deal with the Jets that wasn’t worth more money than he would have gotten had he just went ahead and signed a multi-year contract with Pittsburgh—in either 2017 or 2018. Actually, if you’re anything like me, you cursed the gene gods for not blessing you with the ability to do something—anything—valuable enough to convince a corporation toguarantee you $25 million. That’s what the New York Jets decided to fully guarantee Bell, last week, when they signed him to a four-year contract that could be worth as much as $62 million with incentives. As for the Steelers deal—at least the one offered last year (2017 was too long ago to worry about)—the guaranteed money wasn’t worth as much, but if you consider the fact that Pittsburgh wasn’t going to just up and cut Bell even after a gruesome injury, he was all-but assured to make more than the Jets are guaranteeing him. Maybe the deal he just signed with New York—one that could average $15.5 million per year (or $1.5 million more annually than Pittsburgh offered)—will ultimately pay Bell more than he would have earned had he remained with the Steelers.We will never know for sure. But what we do know is that Bell came out a loser in the end—again, as much as a person who was just guaranteed $25 million could be categorized as a “loser.” Why do I say this? Because Bell walked away from $14.5 million in 2018 just so he could get the $25 million he was likely going to get anyway. You might say Louis Lipps Jersey , “Yeah, but what if he got hurt last year?” Yes, what if he got hurt? No doubt, a torn ACL in the fall of 2018 would have severely limited Bell’s earning potential in the spring of 2019. But unless you or he has a crystal ball that can see into the future (and I don’t even think $25 million can buy one of those gadgets just yet), we will never know if he would have gotten hurt in 2018.All we know is he didn’t get hurt. And even though I don’t have a crystal ball, I can confidently assume that Bell, coming off of a season in-which he didn’t tear a ligament vital to a star running back, would have been able to procure a contract that included at least $25 million in guaranteed money. Therefore, knowing what we do know—Bell entered the 2019 free agency period sans serious injury—he sacrificed $14.5 million in-order to make $25 million. In other words, he walked away from at least—at least—$10.5 million. That’s a lot of money to walk away from.Does this mean you, the fan, are justified in mocking Bell on social media? If it makes you feel better, I guess.As for me, I’m going to continue to curse those gene gods for not making me talented enough in something—anything—to give some nobody writer an idea to craft an article about walking away from $14.5 million just to make a point.
