The Antonio Brown saga continues for the Steelers.
A potential deal with the Bills that had social media abuzz late Thursday night and early Friday morning fell through when Brown's agent, Drew Rosenhaus, told the team the receiver had no intention of playing in Buffalo.
That forced the Bills, who had a rough agreement on compensation in place, out of the mix to acquire Brown. Now, with Kevin Colbert's Friday deadline expired, the Steelers find themselves once again back at square one and the pool of teams involved in active negotiations down to just a couple.
Those are believed to be the Raiders and Redskins, though certainly other teams could jump back in.
Brown, 30, has three years remaining on his current contract, but is reportedly seeking a new deal if he is traded that will make him the highest-paid receiver in the NFL. That is currently Odell Beckham Jr., who makes an average of $19 million per year.
Brown signed a four-year, $68-million contract extension with the Steelers in 2017.
The Steelers have continued to hold an asking price of a first-round draft pick -- or like compensation -- for Brown, but several teams who dropped out earlier in the week -- the Titans, Cardinals and Jets among them -- are reportedly waiting for the team to lower that price.
Colbert has held firm that the Steelers won't trade Brown unless the deal benefits his team. That raises the possibility of the Steelers holding onto Brown past not only Colbert's deadline of today, but also past the March 17 deadline of when the receiver is due a $2.5-million roster bonus.
Colbert raised that possibility last week when I spoke with him at the NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis.
“We understand where we are contractually and we’ve talked through different scenarios,” Colbert said. “When we get to that point, we’ll make that determination, because there may be more teams interested or bidding going on at that point. Then it’s, OK, maybe you have to make a move to keep that bidding going. But if you do that, what does it do to the rest of it? I don’t know because I don’t know what the compensation will be. We’re aware of where it is. We’re worried about today. We’ll worry about tomorrow, about March 17, down the road."
The Steelers did make one trade Friday, sending offensive tackle Marcus Gilbert to the Cardinals for a sixth-round draft pick.
LOLLEY'S VIEW
It's beginning to look like this isn't going to be completed before the weekend, which complicates matters.
While some have questioned how Brown has any say in where he goes, he absolutely does. He can simply tell a team that wants to acquire him he won't report and will instead retire.
No team is going to give up anything for a player threatening that.
But that also means that Brown had better come to terms with the fact that if he's going to threaten retirement, he'd better be willing to follow through on it. It can't be just a ploy.
The Steelers, meanwhile, could force his hand in that respect by retaining his rights. Or, they could tell him if he retires, he's on the hook to pay them back his remaining signing bonus of $11.4 million. Brown might have a lot of money, but when you start talking about him being forced to pay back that much of it, it could get his attention.
And I don't believe that would give the Steelers any salary cap relief this year.
Of course, if he does do that and then simply unretires, he could simply go elsewhere, which is what he's wanted all along.