The ex-Pittsburgh Steelers star -- who famously sat out an entire season over his own contract dispute -- went on a Twitter rant to share his thoughts on the league's biggest stars like Saquon Barkley and Josh Jacobs failing to get long-term deals this offseason ... and he used an old Disney movie to explain his take.

Bell says anyone trying to understand what's going on should check out the 1998 flick, "A Bug's Life" ... which is a story of one ant, Flik, inspiring his colony to team up against a bunch of grasshoppers who have been taking advantage of them.

Bell says he's the real-life version of Flik, because he made the bold move to hold out during his career ... and he took all the heat in hopes of improving the market for his position.

"At the time, no one could see my vision or what I was standing for but all I was doing was just preparing to go against the grasshoppers/owners," Bell tweeted on Tuesday. "But as a lone inventive ant/RB, I obviously couldn’t beat the grasshoppers/owners alone .. ‼️"

Now that Barkley and Jacobs are in a similar situation, Bell thinks they could take back control by following his lead.

"In 2017 & 2018 I was the lone ant, I was Flik .. it was literally ONLY ME .. fast forward 6 years later, now you have multiple ants tryin join the fight against the grasshoppers …"

"Once Flik helped the other ants realize that there are more of US (ants) than it is of THEM (grasshoppers/owners) they finally defeated the grasshoppers ... ants are STRONG AS F*** together ‼️ very weak when they are individuals."

Even if more players start to hold out (there are rumors Barkley will), Le'Veon says there's only so much that can be done ... because after all, the running backs will always be ants.