When it comes to star wide receiver Antonio Brown, the Steelers won’t change the way they handle player contracts, according to GM Kevin Colbert. That means that Brown, who had been considering a holdout this summer, will likely have to wait until after the 2016 season to get a new deal from the team.
“Players sign contracts, we expect them to honor them,” Colbert said, per Mark Kaboly of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. “If a player has one year to go other than a quarterback is when we have gotten into discussions. It has been the position of the organization and it has always been like that.
“It was something that was here before I got here and I am sure it will continue after I am gone,” Colbert added. “It is just the consistency within the organization. It is something that we believe in and it works for us, so I don’t see it changing.”
Brown, a former sixth-round pick, signed his first big, long-term contract in 2012, agreeing to a five-year, $41.7MM pact. That deal pays him over $8MM per year, but that annual average value is only the 14th-highest in the NFL among wide receivers, placing him behind players like Victor Cruz and Pierre Garcon.
Coming off a season in which he led the NFL with 129 receptions and 1,698 yards, Brown probably deserves a deal more in line with the big-money contracts signed by Dez Bryant, Demaryius Thomas, and T.Y. Hilton this offseason. However, as Colbert points out, the Steelers don’t renegotiate contracts with players until they have just one year left. Brown, who will earn base salaries of $6MM in 2015 and $8.25MM in 2016, has a deal that runs through 2017, so Pittsburgh is unwilling to rework it at this point.
Kam Chancellor would be livid in this scenario. The gap between Brown’s wages and what his abilities dictate he should make is now enormous. Not sure I can envision this policy holding up for that long if Brown decides he does need more money.
I am not super familiar with how contracts work out in the NFL but what kind of bargaining power does he have? He signed a contract, what are his options if he for sure wants more money? He can’t make the Steelers pay him more, he can’t go play for another team. Yes, you definitely want to keep your star players happy, and I honestly think they should take care of him now vs later on because it could cost them that much more once he keeps up the way he has been playing (which I have no doubt he will).