The Pittsburgh Steelers offseason will officially begin in 6 days. The media have already begun to speculate what the Steelers will do once March 17th begins. There has been some questioning from the media whether Le'Veon Bell or Antonio Brown should be brought back in Pittsburgh... Boy have we forgot about how badly the fallout was in regards to Antonio Brown leaving the Pittsburgh Steelers. He burned that bridge and although Tomlin still talks with him daily it would be hard to see the Steelers bringing him back especially if Ben Roethlisberger is still in the locker room.
Arthur Moats recently discussed this on his podcast asking if the Steelers should bring him back? He says Brown is currently ranked the 64th best free agent on the market and he is shocked to see it. At first, Moats did not agree with AB being ranked the 64th free agent on the market, but then he says he understands why... Moats said Brown's age is playing a big factor in their rankings and off-the-field issues are still lingering because you don't know how Brown is going to respond in your locker room with a team without Tom Brady.
Moats feels the only team Brown should sign with in the offseason is the Tampa Bay Buccaneers because Brown fits perfectly with Tom Brady. The other team that wanted AB was the Seattle Seahawks and now Russell Wilson doesn't even want to be in Seattle so it makes sense for AB to sign with the Buccaneers again. He does believe if Antonio Brown signs with a team as a WR1 AB will be able to fill that role even at the age of 33 but are you going to pay him as a WR1 knowing some of the off the field antics could be in play?
The market value for Antonio Brown is around $3-4 million. That is really cheap and the reason why Moats says AB could have his old locker in the Steelers locker room. AB knows the system in Pittsburgh and the Wi-Fi is always on says Arthur Moats. Near the end of the podcast Moats questioned would you rather pay JuJu $5-$6 million or would you rather pay AB $4 million? That is a good question...
The question is does Mike Tomlin really want to deal with Antonio Brown again? I mean they still talk quite a bit off the field, but how would Ben respond if AB was brought back? How would AB act differently than he did when he was in Pittsburgh? Yes, the market value fits what the Steelers need, but do the Steelers ultimately feel that bridge is burned in regards to Antonio Brown? We should see this offseason.