Does Tomlin’s Benching Of Brown Really Prove Anything?

Sunday was a bad day for just about every player on the Steelers, and that included wide out Antonio Brown, who was benched during the final series of the game.

Gerry Dulac of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports that Brown was sat Sunday due to the fact he missed an assignment that wound up leading to an interception.

It was at that point that Mike Tomlin made an example of Brown, and instead of running him back out for a meaningless series in a 24-point game, he sat him.

Tomlin did say that Brown will start Sunday at home against the 3-6 Bills.

So does benching Brown really send a message to a team that halfway through the season is four games under .500?

I don’t actually see how.

If Tomlin were to sit him Sunday to start the game, then maybe it would send a message, but having a guy ride the pine in the closing minutes of a blowout that was getting nothing but worse and worse, to me it doesn’t really send much of a message.

For Brown, he’s never struck me as the type of player that doesn’t give 100 percent on the field, and though I could go without some of the usual diva WR dances and the first-down point he does, he seems to be a guy you want your team to be built around.

Isn’t that the reason they gave him such a huge deal in the first place?

If Tomlin REALLY wanted to send a message about Sunday, maybe he should have had the team running wind sprints after the game, or maybe should have sat his entire first-string defense midway through the fourth quarter.

Now that’s sending a message.