Late Saturday night, ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported that the Steelers and Raiders have a verbal deal in place that would send Antonio Brown to Oakland and third and fifth-round draft picks to the Steelers.
Many fans are unhappy with the return, but it’s hard to imagine the Steelers doing better. AB’s antics in recent weeks and months made him a tough guy to trade and the rest of the league knew it. A few months ago, t would’ve been hard to fathom the Steelers not coming away with at least a first round pick for the best wide receiver in the league, but here we are.
AB will also reportedly get a raise and a lot of guaranteed money in Oakland, but he’ll also be catching passes from Derek Carr.
The Steelers are a worse team than they were this morning, but they have some draft picks to work with. Maybe they’ll use some of their picks to trade up in the first round for a good defensive player, though they haven’t done so since 2003 in order to draft Troy Polamalu.
One could think it may be time to turn the page on this generation of the Steelers. Perhaps allow Ben Roethlisberger to play out the final year of his contract and begin preparing for the post-Ben era. There are no indications that the Steelers will do so, as they’ve stated their desire to extend Ben repeatedly and GM Kevin Colbert has basically said Ben only answers to ownership. Ben turned 37 last week and led the NFL in interceptions last year.
Plenty of updates to follow!
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