Steelers owner Art Rooney II hasn’t been shy while opining on the status of disgruntled wideout Antonio Brown, first noting it’s “hard to envision” Brown being with the team in training camp before admitting there are “not that many signs out there that” Brown is going to offer any sort of apology for his Week 17 meltdown. But Rooney used a slightly softer tone when discussing Brown this week, as Joe Rutter of the Pittsburgh Tribune writes.
“There are a lot of factors we have to take into account on it,” Rooney said. “We’d have to sit down with Antonio and understand where he is and make sure he understands where we are. There is some work to do before we figure that out.”
If Brown is cut or traded before June 1, the Steelers will incur more than $21MM in dead money on their salary cap and gain just over $1MM in new space. If he’s designated as a post-June 1 cut or traded after that date, Pittsburgh will take on roughly $7MM in dead money in 2019 and ~$14MM in 2020.
As Rutter notes, Brown is due a $2.5MM roster bonus on March 17, so the Steelers would likely trade him before paying out that total. Trades can’t be officially processed until the new league year begins on March 13, but agreements can be in place before then.
No need to sit down with the passive/aggressive QB that you’re about to extend. The one that screamed about retirement for years, UNTIL they drafted Mason Rudolph. Then you wonder why AB thinks the WHOLE organization plays favorites towards one single player.
solid pts, sad part is they’ll erect (no pun) a statue when he’s finished
I actually agree with everything you said. I genuinely can not wait for Big Baby Ben to retire. Friendly reminder this team was in the 2017 AFC championship game and now look where they’re at. That’s a yikes from me
By the way the weren’t in the Jaguars vs Patriots. Steelers lost to the Jags at home the week before.
AFC Championship game
I’m going out on a limb and bet he was referring to the pats vs steelers AFC championship game that took place in jan of 2017.
Not having Bell dropped them down to a non playoff team. Lose Brown and they are .500
If that
Out of conference games against Colts, Rams, Seahawks, Pats, Chargers, 49ers plus having to play the Ravens and Browns twice without Brown and Bell this is gonna be a 6/7 win team
Conner had more TDs last season than injury prone drama queen Bell has ever had in PIT. Trading Brown for draft capital and making Juju WR1 would be a great move. Combine that with Ben coming off his best statistical year could bring the Steelers back to a top 3 AFC team
That injury prone drama queen proved exactly what he was worth with the Steelers underwhelming season.
STAY OFF THE WEED. If you’re taking Conner over Bell you have a low football IQ. Juju had 6 games with 60 or fewer receiving yards 5 of those were with AB in the line up, without AB teams are gonna focus him and double team him. I’m not saying Juju is bad but to say making him the number 1 would be a great move is mind boggling
I’ve noticed that you value your opinion over numbers. Well nobody else does because opinions don’t matter
Hey Washington… How many of those touchdowns came in the 4th Quarter when Steelers held leads and needed to close those teams out?? With ALL those yards Ben had, PLUS leading the league in INT’s. How they do in the playoffs?? You better hope JuJu can handle those double/triple teams as well as AB did, before you go Anointing the savior. Be careful what you wish for.
You probably did not watch all their games. Steelers lost or ties several games they should have won. Poor coaching. Poor preparation. And clearly some poor execution. Tomlin doesn’t get enough of the blame. He’s the beneficiary of the Rooney’s loyalty.
I think that you didn’t watch all the games. The Steelers should’ve lost to the Browns in week 1, they shouldn’t have beat the Ravens, and the Jaguars had them beat until the refs gave them the game. Not to mention the Steelers shouldn’t have beat the Bengals in the last game of the season. The league tried to give the Steelers a spot in the playoffs and they still couldn’t get the job done. Bad team with a bad cap situation.
The Steelers should have beat the Saints, Raiders, and Chargers if we are playing the what if game.
Wrong! The Raiders outplayed them even though on paper the Steelers should’ve won. Saints were clearly the better team in the game in which they played the Steelers. The problem was that the Saints had to play the Steelers and the refs at the end of that game.
If you think Tomlin doesn’t get enough blame you must not live in Pittsburgh. Almost everyone I talk to wants Tomlin fired here.
Losing bell and not spending his salary on someone else is what dropped them
If they end up trading brown and losing bell to free agency which looks like both will happen all Steeler fans will say just how pedestrian big bang really is. Brown was his Safetynet without him they are screwed.
Brown will stay in Pittsburgh
Wanna bet?
Ben with AB: 0 Super Bowls
Ben without AB: 2 Super Bowls
Amen
Ben with most talented rosters in last 5-6 yrs. 0 Super Bowls. Ben, when he had to step up and be the LEADER of the team, when Polamalu/Ward/Farrior left. 0 SB’s.
Not a Steelers fan, but I’d say they need to make a strong move towards improving. Telling the top players they are not enough, unless you are rothlisberger is bad for morale. Yeah, bell and brown are ego guys but get them enthusiastic and you are a different team. When they are pissed it can tear your structure down.
Maybe just let em both go so they’re excited about playing again, and won’t be embodiments of the gloomy gray city they are playing for.
Who told the top players they were not enough?
The lack of super bowls?
Who knows if the “ Big Cry Baby” himself will be able to stay out of trouble, or do they consider busing your team not an offense to the organization? Amazing how they stand by him and not the other ones. Hmmm I wonder what the difference is.
Rooney apparently is striving to be as respected and loved in Pittsburgh as Art Modell was in Cleveland. He should just buy himself a yacht like Jerry and sail off into the sunset before he destroys a once great franchise even further.
Get a decent coach that has control over his team and gives some discipline and the Steelers are back in the hunt.
Ben Roethlisberger is at fault for the downfall of this organization. He expects the team to treat him like their biggest star, when that just isn’t the case. Brown is a far superior player from a talent standpoint, and yes he may be a diva, but so is Ben. The guy would talk about retirement each of the last 5 years, so we draft a potential replacement, and suddenly, he wants to play into his 40s out of spite. He antagonizes and makes stupid comments about his own teammates. The guy led the league with 16 INTs last year, including two 3-INT games where he cost the team the win. He only led the league in passing yards because he threw far more than any other QB, and has a pair of star receivers. He’s not special anymore. He’s barely above league average. The drama he brings and causes isn’t worth the pain. The Steelers should let him play out his contract, and cut ties.
Just ask AB what his prerogative is
Don’t sleep on Brown to Carolina.
I’m guessing Brown and Bell reappear together again in the same location, Indy or Oakland is my prediction.
History Lesson.
2000, 2001, and 2002 Buffalo Bills WR duo Eric Moulds and Peerless Price. Moulds was the true talent. Multiple Pro-Bowls. Price went up from 762 yds 3TD to 895 yds 7TD to 1252 yds 9TD. Price is THE GUY. Price inked a seven-year deal worth $37.5 million with a $10 million signing bonus with Atlanta. At the time, that was a lot. Age 27 when he left.
All downhill from there 838 yds 3TD, 575 yds 3TD, 96 yds 0TD, 402 yds 3TD, 68 yds out of the league. Meanwhile the 3 year older Moulds had 3 more productive years (Age 30-32) for Buffalo an topped 1000 yards during that time.
Be careful what you wish for, the young up and comer sometimes doesn’t come along when he’s all by himself. Bills had to spend the 13th overall pick on Lee Evans 2 years later as Moulds got older and left the team.
AB is on a HOF path. 28th in Receptions, 34th in Yards, 35th in TDs. Would be wiser to keep him for the remaining 3 years and mend the relationship.
I wonder what it will take to get Brown in a trade. He’s getting up there in age, but he’s still playing at a high level.
I’d like to see him on the Bears, though I doubt they’d make a move like that and probably don’t even have the capital to get it done.
Best offer they could probably make is Taylor Gabriel and both of their 2020 2nd rounders and I’m sure both the Steelers and their fans are expecting at least a 2019 first round pick. I’ll be curious to see what they end up moving him for.
Because of his age and salary I think a mid round pick might be enough.
Bears don’t need him. Nagy preaches a WE attitude not a ME attitude. Just ask Parkey
Why do I feel like brown is getting traded to the Patriots for a 4th round pick ?
This has the stench of belichick written all over it
Brown is going to the 49’ers I think. Since Jerry Rice n Brown are friends and Rice already stated that he wants to play in SF, I think Rice is going to do his thing with the NINERS to make this trade happen. Also Lynch would def find a way to make this work, because they for sure need a #1 WR on SF. With Jimmy G and Mckinnion coming back to the offense next season and the emergence of Kittle and Pettis this is exactly what the NINERS need. They should not give up a 1ST rounder for Brown though, and that is what I’ve been reading lately. Def a 3rd rounder and whatever else they decide to throw in the deal, but they need to get this deal done or try for Beckham in NY. Once again the NINERS are going into the offseason in a good position to improve this team, with the 2nd overall pick in the first round, if Bosa is picked 1 and if they do not want Allen I’m sure they can trade down with a QB needy team and get a surplus of picks in the draft or maybe trade with JAX n get Ramsey, just a idea. But they also have around $80-90 million in cap space again, so they can address a lot of needs in free agency, sign their own players like robbie Gould, Buckner n etc. They have to go for this, it would be a great start to something hopefully promising as long and I REPEAT aslong as everybody stays HEALTHY the NINERS can def make a run at a playoff spots next year.