Steelers star wideout Antonio Brown has two years left on the five-year, $41MM deal he signed in January 2012, and Pittsburgh typically does not negotiate new deals with non-quarterbacks who have more than one year left on their contracts (although the club did give Brown himself that five-year pact after Brown’s second season in the league). The Steelers may be willing to make an exception to their usual standard operating procedure given how valuable Brown is to the team, and according to Ian Rapoport of NFL.com, they may have to.
Per Rapoport (Twitter links), Brown is currently monitoring DeAndre Hopkins‘ holdout in Houston, thereby implying that Brown may be willing to do the same thing in Pittsburgh. Rapoport adds that contract talks have moved much more slowly than Brown would like, and that the situation “bears watching.”
Now for some more contract notes on the league’s biggest stars:
- Jason La Canfora of CBS Sports weighs in on the Brown dilemma, writing that contract talks are not just moving slowly, there have been no contract talks at all between Brown and the Steelers. La Canfora says he would be surprised if a deal for the kind of money Brown is seeking gets done until after this season.
- Appearing on the Steelers Radio Network, Steelers GM Kevin Colbert discussed Brown’s contract situation. “We don’t renegotiate contracts with more than one year remaining with the exception of quarterbacks. Antonio’s under contract,” Colbert said (via ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler on Twitter). “He’s a great player. You can’t say enough good things about him. But he’s a professional. He respects the process, as do we. We’ll see where things end up.”
- NFL Network’s Mike Garafolo tweets that Rob Gronkowski‘s agents, Drew and Jason Rosenhaus, are at Patriots‘ camp today. Garafolo’s sources indicate that they are working with New England on a new deal for the star tight end, but that nothing is imminent at the moment. Gronk, who signed a six-year, $54MM contract after the 2011 season, is under club control through 2019, his age-30 season, but he is significantly underpaid considering the going market rate for his position and his value to his team.
- Adrian Peterson has two years left on his current contract, and as Chip Scoggins of The Star Tribune observes, the structure of Peterson’s deal will force the Vikings to take some sort of action after the 2016 season. Peterson is due a $6MM roster bonus in early March 2017 and would carry a gigantic $18MM figure if his contract is not addressed. No matter how good Peterson is, Scoggins writes that such a cap number would be untenable for a running back who will be 32 next season. Although the team is trying to build a more diverse offense for Teddy Bridgewater, Peterson is still likely to be among the league’s rushing leaders, but even if he is, Scoggins sees a restructure at season’s end as the most likely outcome.