The drama surrounding wide out Antonio Brown is finally over, as the team early Sunday morning moved the unhappy wide out to the Oakland Raiders for a 2019 third-round pick and a 2019 fifth-round pick.
The move ends one of, if not the oddest saga in Steelers history, one that started the week of the final game of the regular season when Brown said he was injured, was sat for the final game against the Bengals, and then Brown came out and said he no longer wanted to play in Pittsburgh.
It’s a sad end to a situation that just could not get worked out between the two sides, as the Steelers didn’t have to do anything in the end with Brown, but with so much bad blood on both sides, there really was no other choice than to trade the former sixth-round pick who became the best wide out in the game.
As Adam Schefter of ESPN reports, Brown and agent Drew Rosenhaus more or less put the deal to Oakland together, as the Steelers appeared to have something in place for Brown late Thursday, early Friday sending him to the Bills, but Brown said he would not report to Buffalo.
Brown tweeted a picture of himself wearing Oakland’s Silver and Black late Saturday night and issued a second post of himself and Raiders quarterback Derek Carr when they were teammates on the AFC Pro Bowl squad.
The Raiders, as expected, also will make Brown the highest paid wide out in the game, giving him a reworked contract that covers three years and pays $50.1 million (with a maximum value of $54.1 million) with $30.1 million of it guaranteed.
With Brown gone, the Steelers wide out game now belongs to last year Team MVP Ju-Ju Smith-Schuster, who last season proved his worth in his second season with 111 catches and 1,426 yards.
What the Steelers will have to make up for is Brown’s 104 catches 1,297 yards, and you can bet the team is going to not only put more pressure on the likes of James Washington to step up, but also will look at the free agent market and the draft to see if a player can somehow, someway pick up the slack.
3 Comments
Leave a Reply
Show Your Team Spirit
Get Your Steelers Tickets
Steelers Gab Newsletter
Sign up to receive our Steelers Gab newsletter, and keep up to date with all the latest Pittsburgh Steelers news.
Dave B.
March 10, 2019 at 9:33 am
Kevin Colbert stated , we will not trade Antonio Brown without getting SIGNIFICANT compensation in return . As a result , the Steelers got a third round and fifth round pick for a player that many consider to be the best wide receiver in the NFL . Simply put , the Steelers lost their ASS in this deal . Brown didnt help matters by acting like an idiot on social media which didnt help his trade value . However , the fact remains , you gave away the games best receiver at a bargain basement price . The significant contribution never came , not even close . Now you have a major hole on your offense and that production has to be replaced . Bottom line , the Steelers lost badly on a player that they said they would not just give away . Kevin Colbert , Art Rooney II and Tomlin have alot of questions to answer because you blew this one BIGTIME .
Rocky Falleti
March 10, 2019 at 2:12 pm
Steelers can clean up on this by signing a free agent proven Middle line backer and drafting a wide receiver in the first round then get the corner backs in 2nd and with 2 picks in the third. What they cannot do is keep picking other teams casts offs and hope they can produce, they never have. They also need a stud on the D. line which we do not have and can get him with picks in the 6th.
Rocky
April 26, 2019 at 11:00 am
Moving up in the draft is something I thought would not happen but it did thank God, we needed that move. Now lets trade away our thirds and move up to get a corner back and we won’t need anything but a wide receiver in the fourth.