Giving WR Antonio Brown $73 million won’t work out the way the Steelers hope, or the way you hope.
Brown does things that are undeniably irritating:
*Pouting when he doesn’t get the ball, mostly recently in the AFC Championship Game when somebody besides him scored a touchdown.
*Running the wrong routes when he doesn’t get the ball.
*Flags for excessive celebration.
*Being tone-deaf on social media.
*Relentless narcissism and ego disguised as "branding."
Brown has a license to do all that now. He’s got 73 million reasons.
Coach Enabler won’t stop it. QB Ben Roethlisberger won’t be able to stop it. Brown won’t want to stop it, or have to stop it.
That’s OK if the Steelers win Super Bowls. But Brown hasn’t.
Brown is 5-10: Not big. He’s 28: Not young. He caught 30 less balls in 2016 than in 2015. He had 550 less receiving yards in 2016 than in 2015.
Not having a legit secondary receiving threat with Martavis Bryant suspended meant Brown was covered better, but should have also meant Brown got targeted more. But Brown was targeted 39 times less.
Don’t act like there’s no gamble in giving Brown that deal. There absolutely is. Brown is a white elephant the second Roethlisberger retires.
I didn’t want to dump Brown. I wanted him to play out the final year of his existing deal. I wanted the Steelers to defer making a big decision on Brown for another year. I have yet to hear why that was a bad idea.
Oh, wait, I forgot: Because Brown would get upset and run the wrong routes. At least he doesn't get arrested. #BOOMIN