Steelers Not Allowing Antonio Brown To Seek Out Trade With Another Team

Ian Rapoport of NFL Media reports that while Antonio Brown prefers a “fresh start“, the Steelers have yet to grant his agent, Drew Rosenhaus, permission to seek out a trade with a new team. 

According to Rapoport, Brown has at least left the door open to possibly being back in Pittsburgh next year by maintaining some relationships within the building. 

On Sunday, Rapoport mentioned that the Steelers are exploring trade options involving Brown and he’s expected Brown to draw “significant interest” on the trade market this offseason. 

The Steelers 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.