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The division is ours.
The Pittsburgh Steelers’ depletion continued this weekend, when the word broke very early Sunday morning that the Steelers are trading WR Antonio Brown to the Oakland Raiders. What is more startling is the lack of compensation that Pittsburgh is getting in return: a 3rd and 5th round pick. In addition, Brown will still account for over $20 million in dead money toward the Steelers’ cap space in 2019.
On top of all that, despite Brown acting over-the-top arrogant and setting his own demands, it turns out he got what he wanted: money, money, and more money from Oakland:
Two years ago, the #Steelers gave Antonio Brown a deal worth $17M per year. This new deal takes that and turns it into a deal worth $19.8M per year. Essentially AB took the remaining $38.925M over the next 3 years and turned it into $50.125M... plus $4M incentives to $54.125M.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) March 10, 2019
It is a little concerning to think that Brown has set a precedent for a player of an elite caliber — to where that player can basically demand to be moved part-way into their deal, and because of the way they act, you can’t even get the best compensation in return for him.
Over at our Steelers affiliate, 60% of fans feel the team got the short end of the deal. 29% are just glad the story is done and over with already. Only 11% are actually fine with the deal. Reading through the comments, they aren’t happy.
The Browns also escape having to play Brown twice a year now — and they don’t play the Raiders this year either. Rich Eisen of the NFL Network had a good reaction to the whole situation:
Mike Mayock’s first deal as @raiders GM is to acquire Antonio Brown and make him the highest paid WR in the game just 2 months after he was reported to leave his team hanging in a must-win game.
— Rich Eisen (@richeisen) March 10, 2019
Now that’s a sentence I never thought I’d type.