49ers Unlikely To Be Landing Spot For Antonio Brown, Haven’t Spoken To Steelers

February 28, 2019

On Thursday, 49ers GM John Lynch told reporters that they have had no conversations with the Steelers about a potential trade for WR Antonio Brown this offseason.

Steve Wyche says he’s spoken with some sources “who would know” and the 49ers “won’t be in play for Brown” as of now.

Steelers GM Kevin Colbert said recently that three NFL teams have reached out to them so far about a potential trade for Brown.

“Teams have reached out. I’d say we’ve had three teams that have touched base with us, and we’ll see where that grows,” Colbert said. “I think it will continue to grow.”

Colbert wouldn’t say what a team would need to offer for Brown, but emphasized: “If it doesn’t benefit us, we won’t do it.”

Brown met with owner Art Rooney II and both parties agreed that it was time to move on.

Brown has been the subject of trade rumors since he was benched for Week 17’s game after an incident that occurred during practice.

Pittsburgh would incur a $21 million cap hit by trading Brown, which is typically too prohibitive for a team to take on. However, reports have said Pittsburgh believes they can easily offset the cap hit.

Brown is owed a $2.5 million roster bonus on the third day of the league year, which could work as a deadline of sorts for the Steelers to trade him.

Brown, 30, is a former sixth-round pick of the Steelers back in 2010. He’s currently in the third year of his five-year, $72.71 million contract that included a $19 million signing bonus and stands to make base salaries of $12.625 million and $11.3 million over the next two years of the agreement.

Trading Brown would be really tough for the Steelers, considering that they would take a $21.12 million cap hit by moving him before June 1. After that, the dead money hit drops to $7.04 million with the remainder being carried on their 2020 salary cap.

In 2018, Brown appeared in 15 games for the Steelers and caught 104 passes for 1,297 yards and 15 touchdowns.

We’ll have more regarding Brown and the Steelers as the news is available.