Star WR Brown officially on market … The often stormy marriage between Pittsburgh and star WR Antonio Brown appears to be finally on the verge of collapse. Brown met Steelers’ owner Art Rooney and G.M. Kevin Colbert earlier this week and while there were some differences in the specifics coming from the two sides about the meeting, both sides appear to have pretty much concluded that Brown will be traded. The one difference was that the Steelers said that they simply aren’t going to give Brown, one of the best players in the NFL, away for nothing and that they would be willing to keep him if they didn’t get adequate compensation. However, that is thought to be more of a bargaining ploy by the Steelers who aren’t necessarily in the strongest negotiating position. On the one hand, most other teams recognize that the relationship between Brown and the team is almost irreparable. Plus, Brown is already 30 and carries a $15 million dollar cap hit for the 2019 season. He’s also being investigated for a domestic violence incident after he allegedly pushed her out a door, although no charges have been laid. That’s in addition to the fact that Brown bailed on the team the final week of the season, as well as took some verbal shots at QB Ben Roethlisberger and head coach Mike Tomlin on social media. Other than that, he’s pretty clean. At the same time, the Steelers likely will need to move Brown fairly quickly once the NFL’s new football year starts next month as he is owed a $2.5M roster on March 17th, although they have reportedly not had any discussions with other teams at this point. However, figure that once the bidding does actually begin, a number of teams are expected to get in line, including Arizona, San Francisco, the Jets, Oakland, Dallas and Green Bay among others, although its still not clear what Brown’s market value is with all the red flags. Right now the buzz around the league is that Arizona and the 49ers, which have the first and second picks overall in the upcoming draft, are the favorites to land Brown’s services. Both team have young QBs that need a true go-to target to help raise their game. The Steelers aren’t going to get either of the top two picks this year, but could conceivably get one of the first two picks in the second round, plus other considerations. although it is also possible that some team such as Dallas or Green Bay could jump in with a late first-round pick. One team that could be watching how all this plays out are the Giants, who some media reports suggest might be willing to move enigmatic WR Odell Beckham before he wears out his welcome in New York. While there has in fact been almost nothing from the team itself to indicate that they might be willing to move on from OBJ, whom they just resigned to a huge deal last year, but if the market for Brown were to really blow up who knows. In the Giants case, OBJ only gets moved if there is indeed a blockbuster offer on the table. Meanwhile, back with the Steelers for a moment, the team has confirmed that star RB Le’Veon Bell will become a free agent on March 13th after being tagged two previous seasons.
