Not surprisingly, there was no Facebook Live video from Antonio Brown Sunday after the Steelers’ 36-17 loss at New England in the AFC championship game.
But Brown still managed to tick off some people.
Antonio Brown left Steelers lockerroom, declining to talk. Maybe he felt he said enough in lockerroom a week earlier
— Ed Bouchette (@EdBouchette) January 23, 2017
Has Brown ticked off the Steelers enough for them to consider trading him?
The Steelers are paying Brown an average of more than $8 million a year, but immediately after the Steelers’ divisional-round win over the Chiefs, he put a gig that pays less than $1 million a year ahead of the team.
According to NFL.com, Brown has a six-figure marketing deal with Facebook. That’s why he shot that video while he should have been listening to Steelers coach Mike Tomlin talk. And as much as the Patriots downplayed it, the vulgar term Tomlin was caught using in reference to them did not help the Steelers’ cause last week as they tried to figure out a way to beat Tom Brady at Gillette Stadium for the first time.
Brown violated the sanctity of the post-game locker room, and Tomlin said his actions were “foolish” and “selfish” and according to ESPN.com he also said that Brown’s behavior is why certain star players wear out their welcome with their teams.
“I definitely don’t want that to be his story,” Tomlin said. “I’m sure he doesn’t want that to be his story. So he has to address these things that put him and us in positions from time to time, in settings such as this that need to be addressed.”
The “time to time” part of that quote implies that this wasn’t Brown’s first incident, just the first that was viewed by tens of thousands on social media.
And Tomlin put it out there that Brown could run out of chances at some point.
And there is the fact that 2017 is the final year of Brown’s contract.
The Steelers have advanced one step further in the playoffs in each of the last three years. They lost in the wild-card round in 2014. They lost in the divisional round last year and they lost in the conference title game this year.
Is there any way trading Brown could help them reach the Super Bowl next year?
It would be difficult to get a team to fall for a Herschel Walker-type deal that brought the Cowboys a boatload of draft picks in the early 90s, but the Steelers could ask for at least a first- and third-round pick from a team like the Titans, who narrowly missed the playoffs and lack a true No. 1 receiver. Or perhaps they could get Golden Tate and a mid-round pick from the Lions. Brown could be the superstar receiver the Lions lost when Calvin Johnson retired.
One place where Brown can’t take his camera is the Steelers front office, and it wouldn’t be surprising if within those walls a Brown trade has been talked about at least as an outside-the-box concept.
Brown is on pace for a Hall of Fame career. His 481 receptions since 2013 is an NFL record for a four-year span. But in the second half of the 2016 season, Le’Veon Bell was the heart of the Steelers’ offense.
After falling to 4-5, the Steelers went to Cleveland and decided to make Bell the focal point of their offense. He carried the ball at least 20 times in eight straight games and ran for 1,172 yards in those games. Over a full season at that clip, he’d have shattered Eric Dickerson’s record of 2,105.
Bell carried the Steelers to a nine-game winning streak, their longest since they won 15 in a row in 2004, Ben Roethlisberger’s rookie season.
Of the Steelers’ Big Three on offense, Roethlisberger, Bell and Brown, it can be argued that Brown is the most dispensable.
However, while Bell helped the Steelers pass a lot of teams in the playoff race, it was Brown who got them across the finish line. The Steelers probably don’t go to the playoffs if Brown doesn’t poke the ball across the goal line in what could have been the last play of the game against the Ravens in Week 16. The Chiefs probably get great field position and a chance to kick a game-winning field goal in the final seconds if Brown doesn’t catch a third-down pass with two minutes left in the divisional-round game.
Then there’s the fact that Brown has missed only two games in the last three seasons. One of them was the divisional playoff game last year when he was out with a concussion and the other was Week 17 this season when the Steelers rested their starters.
Meanwhile, each of the Steelers’ last three seasons have ended with Bell injured. He suffered a groin injury in the AFC championship game Sunday and carried the ball six times for just 20 yards. Bell at least made it to the playoffs for the first time this year and unlike the last two times he was injured he was at least able to give it a go. But just when it looked like Bell was going to make it to the end of a season healthy, the questions about his durability over the course of a full season were once again raised.
The Steelers have a stable of young receivers, but that group was a motley crew on Sunday. Sammie Coates had alligator arms on a deep third-and-1 pass that ended the Steelers’ first possession. Cobi Hamilton dropped a touchdown pass. Eli Rogers, who matched Brown with seven catches, fumbled late in third quarter with the Steelers down 27-9.
Ben Roethlisberger had 119 yards through the air dropped by his receivers. Can't win with that
— Mike Renner (@PFF_Mike) January 23, 2017
“At times it felt like maybe it was too big for some of the young guys,” Roethlisberger told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
Roethlisberger might also have some say in whether or not Brown gets traded, and it sounds like he’s not comfortable enough with any of the young receivers to vote yes.
Martavis Bryant could come back next year, but he has a long way to go to prove he’s reliable.
So if the Steelers can get enough picks over the next two or three years to equal a full draft haul, then they should pull the trigger on a Brown trade.
Anything less than that, and they’re better off trying to make it one or two steps deeper in the postseason next year. Even with all the headaches, they have a better chance to do that with Brown than without.
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