The NFL season is a little halfway over, yet the predictions for the 2019 off-season are already starting to roll in.
One of the wildest predictions that Dan Graziano from ESPN has thrown out there is that Pittsburgh Steelers running back Le’Veon Bell, who has held out all season, will sign with the Houston Texans in the off-season.
Houston might have fluked its way into half of the victories in its current six-game winning streak, but the result is a first-place team poised to make a run to the playoffs. It’s also a team with a boatload of projected 2019 cap space and a quarterback on his inexpensive rookie deal. The Texans will be next season’s Rams — the “all-in” off-season team trying to maximize Deshaun Watson‘s window. Watson, DeAndre Hopkins and Bell? Look out.
The notion of putting Bell in the backfield behind Watson is very intriguing. It would give legitimacy to the Houston running game and also give them a very dangerous mid-range passing game. Bell has amassed 2,660 receiving yards and seven touchdowns on 312 catches in his career. This pairs nicely with his 5,336 rushing yards and 35 touchdowns on 1,229 carries.
The asking price might be a little steep, but if the Texans felt that they needed to put all their chips in on offense, they could most definitely afford it. According to Over The Cap, the Texans will have the sixth-most salary cap space in the NFL at $73.9 million.