Antonio Brown doesn’t feel wanted by the Pittsburgh Steelers. The Steelers right now don’t feel very wanted by Brown, who isn’t even returning their phone calls. And much of the rest of the league doesn’t seem to be too sure about how they feel about him, either, at least outside of San Francisco.
As discussion continues to swirl about the possibility of the team dealing him away in a blockbuster trade—which, I will hasten to remind you, can’t even happen for about another two months—others are beginning to weigh in, notably players on other teams.
Julio Jones, one of Brown’s top rivals for the title of best wide receiver in the NFL, told TMZ several days ago about the prospect of the Atlanta Falcons being the team to deal for him, “we good over here”. In addition to Jones, the Falcons also have 2018 first-round pick Calvin Ridley and Mohamed Sanu at the position.
He isn’t the only one who basically said ‘thanks, but no thanks’ when asked about if he would like to see his team acquire one of the top players in the game. Kenny Golladay of the Detroit Lions earlier this week said, “to be honest, I feel like the Lions are good where we’re at”.
While neither of those players directly stated that they weren’t interested in bringing him in because they thought he would be a distraction, other players in the past certainly haven’t shied away from talking about how great it would be to play with somebody on another team.
One team that has been connected to the possible trade market for Brown is the Denver Broncos, who recently hired Vic Fangio to be their head coach. Even with former Steelers offensive line coach Mike Munchak and former teammate Emmanuel Sanders, Fangio didn’t exactly sound like the sort that would want to have a player like Brown on his roster, talking about those who take a foot when you give an inch.
If indeed Brown really wants to get out of Pittsburgh, he is going to have to sell to other teams that, while he is giving the Steelers a hard time, there is a good reason for that, and that he would not give them the same type of issues.
Part of the reason for that is because whoever trades for him will have to give up quite a bit to get for him in order to make it worth the Steelers’ while. They can’t save much in cap space, so they would have to make up for the loss in capital value in the form of draft picks and/or players.
