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The cycle of the Le'Veon Bell trade efforts if rivaling the lifespan of the Mayfly.

From “no plan” to trade Bell to listening to offers to actively shopping to, most recently, having no serious offers, it appears that the Steelers are back to where they were three weeks ago.

Adam Schefter of ESPN reports that no potential suitors have been aggressive yet, and for good reason. Any team interested in trading for Bell would have to satisfy the Steelers and also persuade Bell to show up, presumably by offering him something more than his $855,000 per week rate, with no guarantee that he’ll be on the team after this season.

With the trade deadline four weeks and two days away, the Steelers could (and should) wait to see whether an injury happens to a workhorse tailback on a contending team. Suddenly, someone would be interested in getting Bell for the balance of the season, willing to pay him significantly more than $855,000 per week, and unconcerned about Bell leaving next year.

A trade nevertheless remains unlikely, and so the question would then become whether the Steelers have shopped Bell as a precursor to rescinding the franchise tender and letting him walks away now, or whether the Steelers hoped to prime the pump for a possible trade next year, in the event Bell sits out the whole season, gets franchise-tagged again in 2019, and would then be traded to a team that could sign him to a long-term deal.