The Raiders traded for Antonio Brown to great fanfare March 10. They released him Sept. 7 without him ever playing a down for them.
But it wasn’t a quiet six months to be sure.
Raiders General Manager Mike Mayock takes the blame for the AB saga, which turned into a soap opera.
“I put that on me,” Mayock told Vic Tafur of TheAthletic.com on Friday. “My anticipation was that he was coming off a situation in Pittsburgh where he wants to prove everybody wrong, and he wants to ride into the Hall of Fame. That he was going to come in with Jon Gruden and Derek Carr and our offense and lead the way. . . .I really thought we were going to get the best out of Antonio Brown, and we didn’t.
“We weren’t able to get anything out of him. So, at the end of the day, in hindsight, we lost a third-round pick and a fifth-round pick, and I can’t tell you how much pain that causes me.”
Brown’s career and his Hall of Fame chances are in serious jeopardy. He played one game for the Patriots this season before they released him, and now, Brown’s agent, Drew Rosenhaus, has conditionally terminated their relationship.
The Raiders cut Brown two days after he threatened to punch Mayock as linebacker Vontaze Burfict played peacemaker. Coach Jon Gruden welcomed Brown back to the team, though, before the Raiders finally moved on.
It raised a question about whether Gruden and Mayock were in agreement about Brown’s future with the Raiders.
“Jon and I are good,” Mayock told Tafur. “Jon and I talk everything through.”