Getty Pittsburgh Steelers WR Antonio Brown
While there’s been major chatter around the potential Antonio Brown trade, the time finally came, and it was late Thursday evening. Multiple teams had been linked to Brown and numerous people believed the Oakland Raiders could be the eventual landing spot, but that didn’t prove to be the case.
As NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport revealed, it’s the Buffalo Bills who are finalizing a deal for the Pittsburgh Steelers star.
The terms of the deal will come once the deal is finalized, but it seems to be all but a done deal. While the Bills weren’t mentioned much throughout the process, it’s hard to argue that they aren’t among the top teams who needed to add talent at the wide receiver position.
Rapoport proceeded to reveal shortly after that original news that the Raiders, Washington Redskins and Tennessee Titans were at the “forefront” of talks for Brown.
Update: After the original report, Rapoport revealed that Brown would not commit to showing up to the Bills. In turn, Buffalo is reportedly out of trade talks for the receiver.
Raiders ‘Balked’ at New Contract?
In a follow-up tweet after the original news came, Michael Gehlken of the Las Vegas Review-Journal addressed the topic of the Raiders with an interesting comment. He cited that Oakland “balked” at a new contract in the trade talks, opting to hold off on pushing to make a deal.
Although the Raiders need a wide receiver and may now look to the draft or another potential trade, the outlook for Buffalo featured plenty of question marks at the position as well. This stands especially true when you consider they don’t have a single wide receiver listed on the current roster with more than two years of experience.
Bills Major Wide Receiver Need After 2018
While Zay Jones led the Bills in receiving during the 2018 season with 56 catches for 652 yards and seven touchdowns, no other wide receiver had more than 27 catches. The second-leading pass-catcher (in terms of receptions) was running back LeSean McCoy with 34. Beyond that, Robert Foster had 27 catches for 541 yards and from there it dropped to Kelvin Benjamin (who was traded) with 354 yards.
This means that aside from Jones and Foster, the Bills didn’t have a single wide receiver who totaled more than 18 receptions or 179 yards throughout all of last season. Buffalo also tallied just 11 touchdown catches by receivers throughout the year and posted 13 total passing touchdowns.
The addition of Brown gives second-year quarterback Josh Allen an elite weapon and a player who can help him potentially take huge steps forward in year two. During his rookie season, Allen completed 169-of-320 passes (52.8 percent) for 2,074 yards, 10 touchdowns and 12 interceptions. Buffalo’s 2018 first-round selection also managed to lead the team in rushing as well, totaling 631 yards on 89 attempts with eight additional scores.
Antonio Brown Offers Eye-Opening Response
In one of the more interesting reactions and updates to a trade report, Brown quickly took to social media to address the deal. And as Bleacher Report first revealed, the wideout responded to the NFL’s official Instagram account by calling the trade report “fake news.”
.@AB84 isn’t having it
It seems on the surface that there may be more coming on this story, especially if Brown’s reaction points to him potentially not having interest in this move. It’s all speculation at this point but more information should come soon.
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