The Buffalo Bills could use a major upgrade at wide receiver so it wouldn’t hurt to make a call to the Pittsburgh Steelers about their troubled star.
The Buffalo Bills basically have no drama surrounding the team right now.
The same cannot be said for the Pittsburgh Steelers.
The Steelers already spent the whole season without Le’Veon Bell, and may be forced to trade Antonio Brown this offseason now that the star receiver appears to be fed up with the organization.
That doesn’t mean a trade will happen, but teams will surely be calling about Brown.
I believe the Bills should be one of those teams.
I know there are two sets of Bills fans out there. The first sees the Brown drama and wants nothing to do with the receiver. Then I search “Antonio Brown Bills” on Twitter and see the other set of fans, who are begging Brandon Beane to bring the receiver to Buffalo.
There are some major salary cap implications for the Steelers when it comes to trading Brown that involve the team eating a lot of money for him to play elsewhere.
But let’s assume the team does offer him up in a trade.
The Bills have the cap space to take him on and he would immediately serve as Josh Allen‘s top target from day one. He could help the younger receivers on the roster grow into great players and would make the Bills an underdog pick to win the division next year.
Or would he?
There are rumors that Brown was angry that JuJu Smith-Schuster was voted team MVP over him, thus leading to him missing the final game of the season. That is alarming and we all know how culture is such a big thing with Sean McDermott and the Bills.
The difference is that Brown may simply be fed up after nine years in Pittsburgh. He is under contract through 2021, which could realistically be all the time he would spend in Buffalo. He would serve as the leader of the group while the other guys developed and learned from him.
Yet this is all assuming that Brown would come in and have no drama in Buffalo. Right now it is hard to say for certain that such a reality could ever happen.
There are a lot of factors that go into considering a trade for Antonio Brown, and that is before we even consider how much it would take to get him. A rebuilding team like Buffalo values draft picks, and culture, so the cost could be what ultimately makes this impossible.
However, I still think Beane should make that phone call to Pittsburgh. Just to kick the tires and see what is being asked in return for Brown. If it is reasonable, then he could bring in McDermott on the discussions.
And for all those who think the team should avoid Brown at all costs, just think about what he could bring to this offense with Allen at quarterback.