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In an exchange that will be formalized on Wednesday at the start of the NFL's new calendar year (unless it ruins the deal saying that Ken Stabler did not sufficiently respect Cliff Branch), the Steelers sent to Antonio Brown, receiver of the All-Pro discontent the Raiders in exchange for their choice of third and fifth rounds in 2019.
That's all?
Anyway, I was asking this question Saturday night when the news was announced.
"That's how everything ends?"
"The greatest receiver in the history of the Steelers, a man who has recorded the best statistic in six years in the history of the NFL, is sent to Oakland for what you have for Martavis Bryant … more a mediocre choice? "
I continued to have these thoughts on Sunday afternoon when I spoke to Bryan Anthony Davis about a special edition of Steelers Hangover. If it depended on me and if all I could get from Brown was what I actually had for him, I would have waited. I would have continued to submit bids by the beginning of the NFL 2019 draft. And if I still had not got what I wanted, I would have waited until the end of the training camp. And, assuming that Brown intended not to participate in the camp and the season, I would have allowed him to stay out of 2019, while imposing a weekly fine on him.
How can you get what you have for Antonio Brown? He's a man I've often compared to Jerry Rice – and my tongue is not firmly anchored in my cheeks. He was and is perhaps still the ultimate receiver off. Big hands. Great itineraries. High speed. Great speed. Perhaps the best of all times to get those two feet in the limits (they, or at least, him, did not call him Tony Toe Tap for nothing).
We are there, a few days later, and I am still a little upset by the return (the transport, as they say at this time of the year) for the No. 84.
But at the same time, I am also realistic. Although the Raiders, one of Brown's favorites, had three first-round picks, even the most optimistic fan, Steeler, must have had some bad thoughts in the head last week after Brown torpedoed a trade with them. bills. One of those thoughts was perhaps: "Geeze, Brown pulling a John Elway (1983) / Eli Manning (2004) by loudly proclaiming that he would not go to Buffalo, it's hard to imagine that the Steelers can completely recover "Brown to anyone" in the contest. "
Yet, on Friday night, it was learned that Brown would probably go to a new team and that it was probably Oakland. It was absurd to think that Pittsburgh would not be able to eliminate one of those first-round picks.
I guess it was absurd. It was absurd to think that the Steelers could actually recover from the damage Brown had caused in the last nine weeks or so, especially the most recent damage caused by nixing operations with teams he did not want to go to.
It is difficult to get a team to give up a first-round pick for a player when that player is likely to retire and retire if they do not want to play for that team.
It is difficult to exchange a player for a new team when this player talks about reworking his already lucrative contract once he joins this new team.
And besides, as Bryan pointed out at our rather cathartic show, who could say that Brown would not do or say something weird / crazy / stupid by now to the project, by the end training camp?
And although I can do this or that, the only person with the power to do these things is Kevin Colbert, the general manager and the man who receives the orders of Art Rooney II, the type to the owner mentality (he's actually allowed to have that mentality – at least, I think so) that has not received a call from Brown, his employee, after straying from the workout, and then to become AWOL at the half-time of the regular season finale against the Bengals.
It was a lot of insubordination that I just described in this last paragraph.
Maybe Colbert asked Rooney to get what he could for Brown and do it very quickly.
We will never know.
Did the Steelers really have enough for Antonio Brown? No, but again, how could they?
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