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Tuesday, June 10, 2003

By Ed Bouchette, Post-Gazette Sports Writer

The Steelers' coaches will turn over every rock on their defense to find a way to keep Kendrell Bell on the field.

	Kendrell Bell plans to be everywhere on defense, playing some at linebacker, defensive end and safety. (Matt Freed, Post-Gazette)

Last season, a turn of his left ankle prevented it.

How do the coaches plan to use Bell this season?

"As much as we can," said defensive coordinator Tim Lewis. "He's a tremendous football player, and, of course, you want to try to keep your players who are difference-makers on the field as often as you can."

Bell will play everything from linebacker to defensive end to safety. That's where he has practiced during the Steelers' extended minicamp that ends Thursday. He'll play inside linebacker in the base 3-4 defense, right rush end in the dime passing defense and inside linebacker in the new nickel package the Steelers put together.

"If I can do something, they're going to put me in," Bell said. "They have me playing almost like a free safety in one of our defenses."

All he wants to do is play, which is something he could not do as often last season because of a severely sprained ankle that virtually kept him out of the Steelers' playoff loss in Tennessee. It also kept him out of his second Pro Bowl, which still bothers him.

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Bell played the first couple of series Jan. 11 in Tennessee but had to leave because his ankle was too weak. He was voted as a first alternate in the Pro Bowl, which was played three weeks later. AFC starting linebacker Al Wilson backed out, and Bell should have replaced him. However, the NFL chose the second alternate at inside linebacker, Donnie Edwards, because it was believed Bell was too injured to play.

"I didn't turn down anything," said Bell, the NFL's defensive rookie of the year in 2001. "They never called me or anything. I was supposed to be going, but nobody came to me to ask if I could play."

Bell said his ankle had healed enough by then to play. He protested to Mark Bruener, the Steelers' player representative.

Said Bruener: "My brief understanding of it is, the NFL selection committee was not given the proper update on the medical status of the alternates. So, in turn, Kendrell was overlooked for that because they had an old report."

An NFL spokesman said it was standard operating procedure not to put injured players on the Pro Bowl team, and his exit physical with the Steelers showed he was injured.

"I feel they didn't want three Steelers linebackers in the Pro Bowl," said Bell, who would have joined teammates Joey Porter and Jason Gildon for the game in Hawaii.

So much for that. Now Bell wants to have the kind of season that will prompt voters to elect him to the AFC's first team in the Pro Bowl. Then it won't be in the hands of an NFL bureaucrat.

He is the Steelers' most explosive player, and the coaches hope to use him to rush the passer more often and also to cover receivers. Last season, they moved Joey Porter in the dime defense to middle linebacker and put Bell at Porter's old spot at right rush end. But Bell's ankle was injured in the second exhibition game. He tried to play every down in the opener but managed only 12 snaps after his ankle was reinjured.

He missed the next four games, and when he returned, he was strictly used in the base defense and came out in the dime.

Bell now has a healthy ankle and hopes to be an every-down player in 2003.

"You've been seeing him everywhere, haven't you?" Lewis said. "He's been up, he's been down, he's been all over the place, and that's what we're going to try to do. Different packages will call for him to be in different places."

Bell will line up next to James Farrior in the nickel defense which, essentially, will remove Kimo von Oelhoffen from the 3-4 to insert a fifth defensive back. Porter and Gildon would play the ends. The Steelers slumped in pass defense last season, and the coaches are hoping to add some new wrinkles to bolster it. In some defenses, Bell will play farther off the ball like a safety.

"I'm just a little deeper than an inside backer. It varies, depending on the spread or whatever offense is out there. Basically, it's just me being deeper and breaking on the ball when the quarterback throws the ball."

Bell never has been known for his pass coverage, but Lewis is convinced he has the skills to do the job.

"For a young guy to come in and do what he did as a rookie is pretty amazing," Lewis said. "But we didn't ask him to do very much. Now we're asking him to do more, but we feel, mentally, he's ready to handle that.

"Good players want to be on the field all the time."

And good coaches find a way to make it happen.