Steelers receiver Antonio Brown reported for training camp. But he still wants the team to tear up the last two years of his contract.
“You have to take care of your guys,” Brown said Sunday after practice, via Jeremy Fowler of ESPN.com. “If a guy underperforms, you get rid of him. If a guy overperforms, you take care of him.”
Brown is right, and he definitely deserves a raise. But with the Steelers holding Brown’s rights through 2017, they have no obligation to take care of him. The team won’t extend contracts of non-quarterbacks with more than a year remaining on the deal. In March, G.M. Kevin Colbert told PFT Live that the Steelers “expect the contract to be honored without any issue.”
Last week on PFT Live, Ed Bouchette of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette suggested that the Steelers at most will move some money from 2017 into 2016, similar to last year’s decision to move $2 million from 2016 to 2015. Then, next year, Brown will get a new contract.
As long as he’s still performing at a high level, that is.