Antonio Brown Gets Paid

Posted on July 27, 2012 by adam

The Steelers signed a young wide receiver to a long-term contract extension on Friday, but it’s probably not the one you expected.


The team announced that Antonio Brown has agreed to a five-year, $42 million contract that will keep him in Pittsburgh through the 2017 season.

Already the Pittsburgh media is trying to determine what impact this has on the Wallace situation, and what his next move might be. Does it have an impact? The Steelers were going to have to sign Brown to a new contract after this season anyway and I can’t imagine that it was ever going to be an either/or situation.

I like Brown (a lot). Very good player, very versatile. But I’m still not ready to put him past Wallace quite yet, especially when we don’t know how Brown would perform without Wallace on the other side of the field (and hopefully we don’t have to find that out).

I have a few more thoughts on the Wallace situation that will come later (yes, this site is still in business, folks) but for now use this thread to discuss the first of the “young money” group to actually get some real money…

Related posts:

  1. Wait, What? Antonio Brown Might Not Make the Final 53?
  2. Antonio Brown Is Going to Give Defenses Fits This Season
  3. Redskins 16, Steelers 7: The Antonio Brown Show!
  4. There’s Your Cornerback: Curtis Brown to the Steelers
  5. Sanders, Brown and Holmes: a Tale of 3 WRs
This entry was posted in Wide Recievers. Bookmark the permalink.
  • drobviousso

    This is pretty great news. I have a feeling in three years we are going to point to this contract value as the reason the Steelers have remained one of the most competative teams in the NFL.

  • jbunda

    Mike come on in or you will get paid elsewhere but not have the benefits of a great team like the Steelers, others have tried it before you and you will not be the first to succeed elsewhere Santonio, I mean Mike

    Santonio I am sorry because that catch in the Super Bowl I will never forget and will be forever grateful

  • Cols714

    That deep ball vs Baltimore on 3rd and long is insanely awesome.

  • Cols714

    How does a guy like that last until the 5th round? NFL scouting is awful. It really must be the easiest job ever if you can miss a guy like that. How many WR were drafted before him? We even took Sanders before him.

    I’d like to work at a job where you can mess up that badly.

  • Eric

    It looks like a lot of the money for the deal comes in the later years. Does anybody have any insight on the Steelers cap situation going forward, it seems like a lot of money keeps getting pushed into later years…

    Still, this is good news. A good player looked up long term. Wallace is losing leverage by the second. If Sanders has a great preseason, Wallace will really be sweating.

  • Rob D

    How’s that for a shot across the bow for Mikey? He’d better sign and get into camp and get tied in long term. IF he doesn’t pick up this new offense quickly, he’s really hurting himself anyway you look at it. There’s a lot of talk that he isn’t the brightest coin in the till and that he, not his agent, is the prime mover behind his situation.

    He can’t really think he’s worth Fitzgerald, Johnson, Megatron money….can he? I am beginning to think he does and that’s really scary, both for him and for the Steelers. I believe the Steelers see Mike as a very good player with top end speed who lacks a lot of the other skills those top TOP guys have. If he continues believing otherwise, I could seriously see him spending the rest of his career in another jersey.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1228034464 Jesse Murray

    Agree MW still better player but step aside a moment and consider this: if MW didnt get deal done, AB has another big year, next season you have a potential horror show. 2 bigtime WRs neither of which signed to a long term contract. AB imho was always in the plans to get a long term deal, Steelers pounced:

    1) Have at least one major WR sewn up
    2) Still have room to sign Wallace
    3) Break down of deal is very incentive laden and if AB produces will be a steal
    4) Worst case they still own Wallace and even if decides not show until game 11, Steelers still have him
    5) If Wallace does go nuclear (hold out to game 11) his value in FA market tumbles
    6) Steelers likely cut some big time vet contracts next season, to include: Hamps, maybe Deebo, Clark and can restructure others to utilize tag if needed

  • Eric

    It seems somewhat comical to me that prior to Brown’s extension, no one had linked a Wallace/Brown extension as being an either/or proposition. Yet now all the buzz is that Wallace can’t be signed/should be traded/sit out till week 10/etc…

    I’m not saying Wallace will get extended but I’m sure the Steelers would make it happen if they had a deal they liked.

  • EasyLikeSundayMorning

    The signing bonus was supposedly only $8.5mm. On a 5-years deal, that seems very inexpensive. From a cap perspective, it won’t be a barrier to signing Wallace. But I doubt Wallace will accept something close to that for a long-term deal. But in the short term, Wallace has no leverage until he plays one more season, so he’ll have to sign his tender at some point.