After Antonio Brown-Bills fiasco, where do Steelers turn next?
Amid all the “How will you remember the Antonio Brown era in Buffalo?” jokes, the Pittsburgh Steelers have a problem.
They tried to trade Brown. Reportedly, it was relatively close to happening with the Buffalo Bills. And then Brown put the kibosh on it. And the entire world heard about it when they woke up Friday morning.
Now what? That’s a tough question to answer. A source told Albert Breer of SI.com there are "very few options left" for the Steelers. That seems very clear.
Pittsburgh has to start over in its trade discussions. And Brown is due a $2.5 million roster bonus on March 17.
Trading Antonio Brown might be even tougher now
The good news for the Steelers is they’re still trying to trade a Hall-of-Fame player. Brown is complicated, to say the least, and the Buffalo nightmare doesn’t ease any of those concerns. But he’s still Antonio Brown, one of the best receivers in NFL history. Teams will be interested.
The problem, ironically, is Brown. While we don’t necessarily know why Brown reportedly said he wouldn’t report to the Bills, he could do the same to the next team to try to trade for him. And the next team. His behavior, going back to late December, doesn’t make him more attractive to trade partners. Although the Steelers tried to not cede any control to Brown — not allowing Brown or his agent Drew Rosenhaus to speak with other teams about a trade was a clear power play — it seems now that Brown actually has all the control. Not to mention that Brown nixing the Bills trade adds another layer to a controversial player who surprisingly didn’t seem to have a huge trade market to begin with. Brown led the NFL with 15 receiving touchdowns last season, but there’s baggage involved with him.
It’s probably fair to assume Brown’s trade value took a hit with the Bills news. That puts the Steelers in a tougher spot.
What do Steelers do now?
Once the Steelers woke up Friday with a possible deal dead and it being the biggest story in the NFL, they had to look at the reality of having to possibly take a deal for less return than they wanted. It only takes one team to get crazy and pay a big price, but who will that be? it doesn’t seem a lot of teams are calling Pittsburgh. And it really seems like the Steelers can’t take Brown back now, nor does Brown seem open to coming back if he’s forced into it.
Steelers general manager Kevin Colbert said often through the process that the team would only do a deal if it benefitted them, and they’d only accept significant compensation for a player as great as Brown. Now it’s clear that Colbert isn’t fully making that call, since Brown has a lot more leverage than he was given credit for.
The Steelers were already in a bad spot. Their star receiver checked out the week before the team’s season finale, getting himself benched, and Pittsburgh felt it had to shop him in a trade despite it costing them a $21.1 million cap hit to trade him. They aren’t a better team without Brown, yet it seemed impossible for them to take Brown back.
And somehow, in the early morning hours on Friday, their position got even worse.
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Frank Schwab is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at shutdown.corner@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @YahooSchwab
