Tom Pelissero of NFL Media polled seven NFL executives and the consensus was the Steelers would likely receive a mid-round draft pick in a trade for WR Antonio Brown.
One executive said the price right now would likely only be a third-round pick, but that he expects the Steelers could end up with a first-round pick and a quality player at the end of this process.
Peliserro mentioned that smart teams won’t give up more than a third rounder for Brown right now. However, Pelissero admits “it only takes one.”
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.
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