On the surface, the Antonio Brown contract can easily be traded. He’s due to make less than $39 million over the next three years, an annual average of less than $13 million.
In theory, this makes his contract somewhat easier to trade. Assuming, of course, that he doesn’t expect a new contract.
Many around the league think that Brown will expect a new contract as part of any trade, both to inject some guaranteed money into a deal that currently carries none and to bump Brown’s annual average closer to the guys who currently are at the top of the market.
If Brown wants a new deal, that will serve only to complicate trade talks, because whoever makes the deal to get him from the Steelers will also have to make a deal with Brown. Which could be one of the reasons for the Steelers’ inability to find a trade partner.
The less that a team must surrender in the form of trade compensation to get Brown, the more money (in theory) they’ll pay him. So maybe it’s good for Brown that the team’s trade leverage seems to be dropping. As the price for getting him declines, there may be a greater willingness to give him a revised deal.