Pretty much any report from Ian Rapoport needs to be taken with a grain of salt, as we have learned over the years as Pittsburgh Steelers fans. If we’re being generous, we could say that he is quick to jump the gun on reporting things.
For as many problems one might have with Adam Schefter, he tends to be more cautious. So following a night in which Rapoport made the case that a trade deal was being finalized between the Steelers and the Buffalo Bills to send them Antonio Brown, we were all awaiting word from other sources.
Finally, about a quarter past three in the morning, Schefter finally checked in. he confirmed that the Bills are among “a handful of other teams” that have spoken with the Steelers about Brown in recent days, but a source told him a trade to the Bills, while “not out of the question”, is “unlikely”.
Buffalo has spoken to Pittsburgh about a potential trade for WR Antonio Brown, as have a handful of other teams. Those talks occurred only in recent days. A source this morning called a Brown-to-Buffalo trade “unlikely.” Not out of the question but, at this time, “unlikely.”
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) March 8, 2019
Mike Florio jumped right in about six minutes later. A source told him that a trade between the Steelers and Bills is “not even close”, which is a pretty far cry from being finalized. In the interim, Brown responded to an NFL social media post about the Buffalo trade speculation by calling it fake news.
Just got a couple texts on the report (apparently) of Antonio Brown done-deal trade to Buffalo. Source calls report “erroneous” and says a deal to the Bills is “not even close.”
— ProFootballTalk (@ProFootballTalk) March 8, 2019
Schefter further weighed in, with a source also telling him that he doesn’t believe it was ever close to happening, and that the story was “dead on Wednesday”.
Another source on a potential Antonio Brown-to-Buffalo trade said it will not happen. “I don’t think the Bills trade was ever close to happening,” said one source involved in those talks. Steelers snd Bills briefly talked but “this is an old story. It was dead on Wednesday.”
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) March 8, 2019
As previously reported, the Steelers are said to have requested that teams put their best offers forward in exchange for Brown by later today, though the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette refuted the notion that the day represented even a ‘soft’ deadline for an actual trade agreement to be put in place.
Meanwhile, ESPN even threw out the name of the Green Bay Packers, with Diana Rossini Tweeting that they were “interested and looking to make moves”. Following a season in which Aaron Rodgers publicly criticized his wide receivers (pardon me while I reach for my fainting couch), it wouldn’t be surprising if the franchise that just fired one of the longest-tenured coaches in the NFL were looking to make a bolder-than-typical move.
The Steelers had a hard time finding teams that were in on Antonio Brown, but the Packers were interested, per @diannaESPN. pic.twitter.com/Teu6liSBbA
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) March 8, 2019
The Packers have Randall Cobb set to become an unrestricted free agent next week, and not much else outside of Davante Adams, who is under contract for three more years. At least with a move to the Packers, that could appease Brown in terms of the quality of quarterback play.
FRIDAY MORNING UPDATE:
