Antonio Brown & Steelers Agree It’s Time To Move On, Will Pursue Trade

On Tuesday, Antonio Brown posted a Tweet saying that he met with Steelers owner Dan Rooney II and they agreed to move on. 

• Adam Schefter reports that Brown and his agent, Drew Rosenhaus, met with Rooney and Steelers executive Omar Kahn and “everyone agreed the trade will be for the best.”
• Ian Rapoport adds that the Steelers agreed to work on a potential trade, but did not give Brown or his agent permission to speak with interested teams to facilitate a trade.

Had a great meeting with Mr.Rooney today we discussed a lot of things and we cleared the air on several issues! We both agreed that it is time to move on but I’ll always have appreciation and gratitude towards the Rooney family and @steelers organization! #CallGod #Boomin pic.twitter.com/DEgURchvhW

— Antonio Brown (@AB84) February 19, 2019

Last night, Brown posted an Instagram Live video in which he said he’s looking for guaranteed money from his next team.

“If your squad want to win and your squad want a hungry wide receiver who’s the best in the whole world, someone hit my phone,” Brown said, via Pro Football Talk. “Tell them I ain’t doing no unguarantees. I ain’t even gonna play myself no more for this NFL. … I think I done everything. What y’all think? What’s left for me to do? Win a Super Bowl? Gotta be the right team for that, right? … If your team got guaranteed money, they want to get to know me and work with me, tell them to call me.”

Brown has three years left on his contract that is considered below-market and no guaranteed money. 

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.