We have five and a half weeks remaining until the start of the 2019 NFL league year and by that time many are speculating that the Pittsburgh Steelers will trade disgruntled wide receiver Antonio Brown before paying him the $2.5 million roster bonus he’s due in the middle of March. While Brown is now seemingly talking to the media some again after going AWOL during the final week of the 2018 regular season, he’s still giving the appearance that he’s fine with playing somewhere other than Pittsburgh starting in 2019 as long as he wins.
Former Steelers cornerback Ike Taylor chimed in some on Brown’s current situation during a Monday interview on the ‘Tiki and Tierney’ show on CBS Sports Radio and he in essence said that Brown better be careful what he wishes for when he was asked where he thinks the wide receiver will ultimately play in 2019.
“Well, hopefully he’s back on the Steelers,” Taylor said. “I dont know. He said a couple of days ago, he asked the fans how they feel about him coming back, me, personally, just being a longtime Steeler, I would love to see him back. He’s got to understand the grass ain’t always greener. Look at it. You’re still getting a lot of targets from 7 [Ben Roethlisberger]. Yeah, the relationship might not be good, but at the same time he’s not a bad quarterback. You still get a lot of targets. And AB, I’m not going to say he can pretty much do what he wants in Pittsburgh, but he’s a living legend.”
Taylor was then asked to comment on what he thinks has Brown so discontent right now. Taylor didn’t answer that question, but he did have some advice for the Steelers wide receiver just the same.
“Him and Big Ben, they got to get on the phone or they gotta have dinner,” Taylor said. “They got to sit down like men and they have to talk it out. They’ve got to talk it out.”
When asked what he thinks the Brown and Ben Roethlisberger really need to sit down and talk about with the wide receiver still getting his fair share of targets from his quarterback, Taylor offered up a little more advice.
“You’ve got to sit down and talk about it face to face,” Taylor said. “Not in practice, not in the locker room, not when people are around. If y’all talk about it at the house, if y’all talk about it at a restaurant, you’ve got to leave that ego at the door and you listen. If Ben’s got something to say on why he’s not happy with AB, AB’s got to listen. If AB is talking about Ben and why he’s unhappy, Big Ben’s gotta listen.
“So, them guys really got to sit down, because you’re talking about two guys probably going into the Hall of Fame, so you can imagine the hard work, the egos or how they feel as a football player. It’s high. AB feels like he’s one of the best, Big Ben feels like he’s one of the best. So, when you got those two guys on different pages, of course. It’s like having a brother, y’all fight it out sometimes. By the end of the day, it’s all love. They got to get that all love back.”
Taylor knows Brown and Roethlisberger quite well as he’s only been out of Pittsburgh as a player since the 2014 season ended, so essentially 2015. Taylor had an opportunity to leave the Steelers as an unrestricted free agent in 2011 but decided to re-sign with the team instead. Taylor and Brown had a few dust-ups when the two were teammates but seemingly were always able to settle their differences. It will be interesting to see if Brown can settle his differences with Roethlisbefger and several other key members of the organization over the course of a little less than a month and a half.
