What if the Buffalo Bills took the risk of acquiring Antonio Brown? How different would the team, and subsequently, the NFL be?
On March 7th, NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport Tweeted his equivalent of a “Woj Bomb;” the Buffalo Bills were making a trade for the mercurial, bleach blonde mustached, Hall of Fame-caliber wide receiver Antonio Brown. Then, in a matter of minutes, the superstar debunked the rumors via one of the league’s most credible sources. ESPN’s Adam Schefter later confirmed this. It was dead after an hour.
Sources: The #Steelers are closing in on a deal to send star WR Antonio Brown to the Buffalo #Bills. There it is.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) March 8, 2019
Speculation filled the air as to whether or not the trade was real or fake — coming from Rapoport; most thought it was the former. But the deal never happened, Brown, from an outsider perspective, forced his way out of it, in turn, landing him in Oakland. The receiver wanted a new contract and, in typical fashion, wanted to play in a marquee market; he likely figured Buffalo couldn’t offer both.
But, what if, the trade did happen? What if, despite Brown’s fake news comments on Instagram, the Bills felt as if he’d like it in snowy Buffalo? What if, he signed a contract extension, because, he just wanted to get paid and Buffalo can do that? Would it change the entire landscape of the NFL? (yes) Would it change the prospects of the Bills’ future? (yes)
In order to acquire Brown, the Bills would’ve given up considerably valuable assets. The rumor — for the brief time when people thought he’d be a Bill — was that the two teams would swap first round picks. This means the Steelers get No. 9 overall, while the Bills get No. 20 — more on this later.
With Brown on-board, the Bills would be in an entirely different place. In this hypothetical scenario, Buffalo gives him the same contract extension Oakland did. That means Buffalo would be paying him $50 million over the course of three years, with a $15 million cap hit in 2019, $17.3 million in 2020, and $17.8 million in 2021, per Over The Cap.
Brown’s pricey contract would sink the Bills’ cap space pre-free-agency from $76 million to $61 million — still enough to work with. With that known, this leads us to the free agency portion; how the Bills would spend their money with Brown now on-board.