Steelers/NFL
Steelers ship Antonio Brown to Oakland
The Antonio Brown nightmare is finally over for the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Unfortunately for the Steelers, there’s a ton of ramifications on getting such a low return for the best receiver in the game who was on a good contract.
The Steelers have traded Brown to the Oakland Raiders in exchange for a 2019 third-round pick and 2019 fifth-round pick.
There’s more.
This really is wild. Antonio Brown skipped work, disparaged the Steelers publicly, said he wouldn’t play on a contract with three years left, then got a raise of almost $20 million with $30-plus million in new guarantees on his way to a new team. Savage power play.
— Jeremy Fowler (@JFowlerESPN) March 10, 2019
Brown not only sabotaged his trade value so bad in that the best receiver in the game netted just a third round pick, a laughable return, Brown and the Rosenhaus brothers were running a power play the entire time from the week 17 absence to holding firm from the start on getting a new contract from whoever traded for Brown.
Brown essentially acted like he was a free agent in holding all the power over the Steelers and he wins at the end of the day — HE GOT HIS MONEY–
Drew Rosenhaus at the end of the day found one last standing team willing to rip up Brown’s current contract.
Per ESPN’s Adam Schefter, Brown will receive a new three-year deal worth up to $54.125 million from the Raiders, with $30.125 million guaranteed. Brown previously had three years and $38.9 million left on his contract with the Steelers, with none of the money guaranteed.
The Raiders also played this perfectly in waiting the Steelers out.
Oakland long considered a front-runner for Brown, had taken a pause in talks earlier this week due to the Steelers asking price and concerns of bringing Brown on board, but Gruden and Co just waited the Steelers out until the Steelers had no other option.
There was no other clear path for the Steelers.
The Steelers, though, had to end the circus and move on. They couldn’t let this drag on.
Once the Buffalo deal fell apart, Oakland was the only other option to re-engage in talks. The Steelers were backed into a corner and things were setting up where you either take this offer or release Brown.
They’re lucky Oakland even offered a third.
For the #Steelers I dont know how you spin this as anything more than a disaster. They spent over $29M in new money for basically one additional year that resulted in no playoffs and got taken to the woodshed by Brown starting in week 17. For all that they get a 3 and 5 back.
— Jason_OTC (@Jason_OTC) March 10, 2019
Was there a ton of mis-management for the Steelers?
Absolutely and some of it dates back to last year in restructuring Brown’s contract again. Brown has always been a loose cannon, locker room problem, where the Steelers should have protected themselves better that a situation like this could happen where he goes off the rails.
Instead they’ll carry a $21 million dead cap hit with an early third rounder to show for it.
Antonio Brown is gone from Pittsburgh, but not forgotten. Brown will leave the Steelers with a dead-money salary-cap charge of over $21 million this season, thought to be the biggest one-year salary-cap charge in NFL history.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) March 10, 2019
The most disappointing part for the Steelers organization was how they let Brown stay in control with the message. They paid the guy without any fight for quitting on the team in week 17 and what’s worse was having Art Rooney II pose for a picture with Brown where Brown put the message out that both sides were moving on.
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