Joique Bell rejected Lions' offer of pay cut to remain with team

The Detroit Lions offered running back Joique Bell a chance to stay with the team at a reduced rate before cutting him.

Bell, whose contract for 2016 was slated to pay him $2.5 million in base salary, says the Lions offered to keep him around if he took a pay cut. He refused, so he was cut.

"There's no bad blood between me and the Lions," Bell said, according to Justin Rogers of MLive.com. "They did what was best for the organization and I did what I thought was best for my family."

Bell added that he believes there's still a chance he will be back in Honolulu blue in the future.

"You never know, I might end up back with the Lions, but I owe it to my family, I owe it to myself, I owe it to my hard work and dedication to test the market, so that's what I’m doing."

Bell will be 30 years old when the regular season begins and has a body that has started to break down in recent seasons. It's highly unlikely he'll find much more than the Lions were offering him on the open market.