Buccaneers Officially Sign Antonio Brown

October 27th, 2020 at 8:39am CST by Zachary Links

It’s a done deal. On Tuesday, the Buccaneers formally inked Antonio Brown to a one-year contract, as Adam Schefter of ESPN.com tweets.

Brown is officially in the fold, though he won’t be eligible to play until Week 9. His one-year pact will pay just $1MM in base salary and bonuses, with the potential to reach as much as $2.5MM. If the Bucs win the Super Bowl, AB will receive a $750K bonus, and he has three separate $250K bonuses for receptions, yards, and TD milestones. Those incentives are only in play if the Bucs reach the playoffs.

Brown, 32, will be eligible to join the club at their team facility on Wednesday, once he’s cleared COVID-19 testing. He can’t practice until Week 9, but he can attend meetings and train with the team’s conditioning staff in the interim.

There was pushback, but Tom Brady talked Tampa Bay into adding the multiple-time Pro Bowler. Bucs head coach Bruce Arians was insistent that the team would not add Brown. Ultimately, Brady got his way.

The Bucs didn’t necessarily need Brown a few months ago, given their wealth of receiving talent. However, injuries for Mike Evans, Chris Godwin, Scott Miller, and O.J. Howard changed things. There’s reason to worry about the balance of the locker room with Brown, though offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich, offensive assistant Antwaan Randle El, and outside linebackers coach Larry Foote all played with the mercurial veteran. There’s hope that, together, they can keep Brown on the right track.

On the field, Brady arguably has the best receiving cast of his career. With Godwin, Evans and Rob Gronkowski, the future Hall of Famer has a wealth of weapons at his disposal.

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