Olsen Pierre

Extra Points: Brown, Packers, Seahawks, Combine, Cardinals

By Andrew Ortenberg | at March 2, 2019 8:40 pm

Another day, another update in the Antonio Brown saga. The All-Pro Steelers receiver is still demanding a trade, and now we have an update on his preferences of where he’d like to land. Brown has been loosely connected to a handful of teams, but they apparently aren’t all equal in Brown’s eyes. “Quality of quarterback play will be a factor” in determining whether Brown will agree to play for a potential trade partner, a source told Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk.com.

We heard earlier today that the Titans, Raiders, and Redskins had been expressing the most interest in Brown so far. It’s unclear if any of those three teams would meet Brown’s apparent standards for quarterback play. The trade market has been relatively quiet for Brown thus far, and his public demands have seemingly reduced the Steelers’ leverage in negotiations. Brown has played his entire career with one of the league’s top quarterbacks throwing him the ball, so it makes sense why he wouldn’t want to downgrade.

Here’s more from around the league on combine Saturday:

• The Packers could really use some extra pass-rushing help, and they might already have their eyes set on someone in this year’s draft class. The Packers “really like” Florida edge rusher Jachai Polite, according to Tony Pauline of Draftanalyst.com. Green Bay owns the 12th pick in the draft, and that’s right around where Polite is slated to go in most mock drafts as of right now, so it could be a good fit. Polite racked up 11 sacks and 19.5 tackles for loss this past season with the Gators.
• Doug Baldwin never looked 100 percent right for the Seahawks this past season, and we now have confirmation he was dealing with multiple serious injuries. The receiver underwent surgery on his knee and his shoulder after the season ended, Pete Carroll revealed from the combine this week, according to Bob Condotta of The Seattle Times (Twitter link). Carroll did say that Baldwin, 30, will be fine for the start of the regular season. Baldwin missed three games in 2018 with a knee injury, and was clearly not fully healthy during the 13 games he was on the field. He finished with just 614 yards, by far his lowest total since he became a starter in 2013.
• Former Penn State quarterback Trace McSorley was asked to workout as a defensive back at the combine this week, according to Adam Schefter of ESPN.com (Twitter link). Schefter notes that McSorley declined the request, citing a desire to concentrate on being a quarterback. McSorely played defensive back in high school, so it’s not entirely out of nowhere. Teams sometimes do things like this, like when Lamar Jackson was controversially asked to workout as a wide receiver at last year’s combine. McSorley set records at Penn State, but isn’t thought of as one of the top quarterback prospects in this year’s draft class.
• The Cardinals will be non-tendering defensive tackle Olsen Pierre, a source told Florio (Twitter link). Pierre, a 2015 undrafted free agent, made his first NFL appearance with Arizona in 2017. He ended up starting seven games for them that year and was very productive, racking up 5.5 sacks. He appeared in ten games for them last year with one start, but the new coaching staff apparently wants to move on. He should be able to latch on somewhere when the market opens in a couple of weeks.