As I'm sure you all know by now, Antonio Brown was traded from the Pittsburgh Steelers to the Oakland Raiders overnight, in exchange for some draft picks. It was expected he would be traded, but to the Raiders of all teams? The following points concern Brown and the Raiders, and my thoughts on everything thus far.
1) Wrong side of the Bay? Antonio Brown had been courted heavily by the San Francisco 49ers, and had even publicly said that he wanted to play there. The legend himself, Jerry Rice, even came in to bring Brown to the 49ers, and it seemed like it would become a reality. How the 49ers let this slip through their fingers and pave the way for Brown to go across the Bay is beyond me at this time.
2) Gruden. Raiders head coach Jon Gruden thinks Brown is better than even the above mentioned Jerry Rice, and was quoted as saying this this morning on the NFL Network. This further proves my theory that the Raiders (and their coaches/front office) are living in a parallel universe. Sure, they get a huge target in Brown, but the issue is that Derek Carr is still their starting QB, and we've all seen him play. Oakland has a terrible O-line, and their defence is beyond brutal. Having Brown is useless if Carr has little to no protection, which in turn gives him no time to throw the ball.
3) Playoffs. As much as it pains me to say this (I hate the Steelers!), Brown left a team that can make the playoffs for a team that couldn't win an ass-kicking contest against a one-legged man. This would suggest that Brown is more about the money than anything else. There's no other way to explain why he'd leave a better team for a worse one, and get the honour of looking in from the outside when the playoffs roll around.
I honestly get the feeling that this trade was driven more by his agent, than himself. Just watching the interview with Brown's agent today gave me pointers in this direction.
Hmmm.
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