Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Antonio Brown has decided not to attend Phase One of the team’s voluntary offseason program but a very cryptic tweet Tuesday evening gives us hope that he won’t miss any of the 2015 season.
Brown, who according to reports earlier this week wants a new contract, tweeted, “I’ll be there”, Tuesday, after first tweeting out a picture of the Steelers 2015 opponents.
"I'll be there" 4sho
— Antonio Brown (@AntonioBrown84) April 21, 2015
The Steelers first three phases of their offseason program are not mandatory to attend per the CBA. The third phase includes the 10 OTA practices. The Steelers can’t fine Brown until June when their mandatory minicamp gets underway and it’s unclear as to whether or not the former sixth-round draft pick will be present for that. The same goes for training camp.
While we are merely speculating about a three word tweet, it appears as though Brown, at worst, will miss all of the offseason practices and training camp before finally reporting to the team for the regular season.
In 2005, Hines Ward skipped all of training camp but finally reported to the team for the start of the regular-season.
Brown possesses an incredible work ethic, so I fully expect he’ll have himself in top-notch shape. For now, we can only hope that his Tuesday night social media message means what we think it means.
Brown currently has three years remaining on the contract that he signed in 2012. Last season he led the league in both receptions and receiving yardage.
