Antonio Brown Scaring Off Potential Suitors

According to Peter King, the more Antonio Brown tweets about his situation with the Steelers, “the more he scares off potential suitors.”

King reports that he knows first hand that this is the case for at least one suitor.

Last week, Brown did a Q&A via his Twitter account where he addressed some of his ongoing issues with the Steelers. 

• Browns mentioned that there’s no conflict between him and QB Ben Roethlisberger and they have “mutual respect” for one another. Although, he added that Roethlisberger carries an “owner’s mentality” and can call out “anybody including coaches.” 
• According to Brown, Steelers’ players can’t criticize Roethlisberger or their “meal ticket [is] gone.“
• Brown was asked (Twitter link) about wanting to play for another team and a new contract: “Not for the money its for the love of the sport ! The commitment to win relentlessly consistently passionately ! Plus I made 70 million it’s public record not to be cocky just truth! Time to play for my own Team AB84 the family !“
• As for accusations that he quit on the Steelers due to injury, Brown said (Twitter link): “After the coach tell the team I quit while nursing some bumps then invite me to watch the show with same guys thinking I quit i can not stand with that! I’m the bad guy doe we miss post season think about it.”

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.