Steelers fans didn't even get a half an hour of celebratory time Tuesday with the news the team had agreed to a contract with cornerback Steven Nelson in free agency before the Browns rained on their parade.
News broke soon thereafter the Browns had upped the ante in the AFC North, sending their first-round pick (17th) overall, a third-round selection (acquired from New England for former first-round pick Danny Shelton) and safety Jabrill Peppers (another former first-round pick) to the Giants for Odell Beckham.
That's a steep price to pay for one player. And it's certainly more than the Steelers got in return from the Raiders for Antonio Brown (more on that later), but it shows how aggressively the Browns are being within their window.
What window might that be? The one where quarterback Baker Mayfield is counting just $1.9 million against their salary cap in 2019.
That's why, in the span of a couple of days, Cleveland has been capable of adding defensive lineman Olivier Vernon and Beckham in separate deals with the Giants -- shipping out guard Kevin Zeitler and Peppers along with those draft picks -- and signing former Vikings defensive tackle Sheldon Richardson in free agency, and had a verbal agreement in place to re-sign wide receiver Breshad Perriman on a one-year deal.
The Browns also reportedly are in the mix to sign free agent safety Earl Thomas to replace Peppers.
Does that make them the team to beat in the AFC North? Perhaps. They've certainly added some impressive talent. But impressive talent does not always win on the football field.
And we'll see if Beckham pulls an Antonio Brown and insists on a new deal now that he's with a new team. After all, he's "only" due $16.75-million in base salary this season. That drops to $14 million in 2020. If it worked for Brown, it can work for others, at least that's what we've been hearing from the talking heads on TV.
The other thing to factor in is how this affects the team. There is, after all, only one ball to go around. In fact, soon after the deal for Beckham was announced, Perriman, who had re-signed with the Browns for $4 million earlier in the day, was reported to want out of his deal and is rumored to be now signing with Tampa Bay.
Beckham and Jarvis Landry were teammates at LSU, so they're used to working together. But they've also had several years to become accustomed to being the unquestioned No. 1 targets on their respective teams. Everything might be good now, but when Landry is only getting five targets per game, instead of the 10 to which he's become accustomed, does that change the dynamic?
After all, we've seen firsthand in Pittsburgh what having one diva receiver can do for a team, let alone having two on the same roster.
Cleveland is better. Of that there is no doubt. But how much better remains to be seen. After all, the Browns also have a first-time head coach -- at any level -- in Freddie Kitchens. Kitchens showed last year he could be an effective offensive coordinator. But that doesn't necessarily mean he'll be good now that he's the man in charge of it all.
But, with the Ravens suffering multiple free agent losses in longtime defensive stalwarts Terrell Suggs, safety Eric Weddle, linebacker Za'Darius Smith and inside linebacker C.J. Mosley, along with top receiver John Brown, and the Steelers trading away Brown, the Browns saw an opening.
Is that opening enough for the Browns, who finished third in the division at 7-8-1 to overtake the top two teams? That certainly could be the case, especially if they do land Thomas.
But there's still a draft to be completed and more signings to come. Seldom do teams buy their way to a championship.
You do have to admit, however, that the AFC North is getting much more interesting.
I've said for years that it's good for the Steelers for the Browns to be good. The Bengals are a mess right now. The Ravens have undergone major changes and don't look as if they'll be nearly as good as they were in 2018. So now the Browns are stepping back to the forefront -- finally.
• In Steven Nelson, the Steelers get a corner who has gotten better in each of his four NFL seasons. A couple of years ago, Nelson was a player the Steelers wanted to target when they played the Chiefs, both in the regular season and again in the playoffs.
But in 2018, he finished tied for second in the NFL in forced incompletions (per Pro Football Focus) with 20, tied for fourth in the NFL in interceptions with four, 15th in completions percentage allowed according to PlayerProfiler.com (55.6 percent) and 15th in passer rating allowed (79.1) according to the same service.
Yes, Nelson saw a lot of action in the Kansas City secondary last season. The Chiefs were ahead by a lot in a lot of games.
Nelson is certainly a big upgrade over Coty Sensabaugh on the outside. Not that Sensabaugh was necessarily bad last year. But the Steelers upgraded from white bread to a nice rye.
• The signing of Nelson came as a bit of a surprise. His price was thought to be beyond what the Steelers could or would offer. And the Steelers were in on former Broncos cornerback Bradley Roby, who instead chose to sign with Houston for a one-year, $10-million contract.
Nelson came in at three years for $25.5-million. That's approximately the same deal they were offering Roby.
The Steelers got a player in Nelson who has performed better than Roby -- certainly last year. Sometimes, finishing second isn't a bad thing.
• A two-year deal worth $8 million for Anthony Chickillo seems high for a backup player. But, as I mentioned in my analysis of the signing, it could give the Steelers some bargaining power with Bud Dupree Wednesday.
As of Tuesday afternoon, the Steelers hadn't approached Dupree about taking a pay cut or working out an extension that would lower his $9.2-million salary, which becomes fully guaranteed at 4 p.m. Wednesday.
They simply didn't have a lot of bargaining power before, with Ola Adeniyi being the only other outside linebacker other than T.J. Watt with any NFL experience. Now, they do.
It wouldn't surprise me if the Steelers call Dupree's agent at noon Wednesday and give him a take-it-or-leave-it offer. Either that salary gets lowered -- most likely via an extension of some type -- or the Steelers pull the offer and move on.
• Then again, when you look at the money some edge rushers have been getting in free agency, $4 million could be considered a bargain.
After all, the Packers signed Za'Darius Smith from the Ravens and Preston Smith from the Redskins to deals worth a combined $117 million. Both players will be earning more than $13 million per year. They combined for 12.5 sacks last season.
• The Steelers likely aren't done in free agency. They still need a receiver. And surprisingly, the Chargers' Tyrell Williams remains unsigned.
Williams was another player who wasn't included in my free agency looks because it was thought he would get somewhere in the range of $12 million per season.
He still might. But the Steelers have been in contact with his agent. If they can somehow pull that move off, they would go into the draft needing only to fill a big hole at inside linebacker, and with the draft capital available to move up aggressively to acquire Devin White or Devin Bush.
Would that be the kind of offseason that would make people happy?
Here's another thought. Even after losing out on Anthony Barr -- who backed out of a contract agreement -- the Jets signed Mosley away from the Ravens to pair him at inside linebacker with Avery Williamson in their 3-4 defense.
That could leave former first-round draft pick Darron Lee out of a job.
Lee has one year remaining on his rookie deal at a relatively cheap $1.8 million. And then he would have a fifth-year option as a former first-round pick.
If the Steelers could wrest Lee, who had 78 tackles and three interceptions in 2018, away from the Jets for a mid-round draft pick, that would be a heck of an offseason of adjustments.
In fact, the Jets don't have a second-round draft pick. If the asking price was even the high third-round pick the Steelers got from the Raiders for Brown, I would consider it.
• Now, about the Brown trade. Looking at what the Steelers got in return for Brown when compared to the return the Giants got for Beckham certainly put social media abuzz.
Brown has clearly been the more productive player, especially considering Beckham has missed 16 games in the past two seasons.
But if you were polling NFL general managers about which player they would rather have moving forward, Beckham would be the guy. First, he's 26, compared to Brown, who turns 31 this summer.
That five-year difference is huge. Both have been headaches for their former teams, so that's a wash. But, as far as we know, Beckham has never quit on his team. In other words, the Giants didn't have to trade Beckham. The Steelers couldn't possibly bring Brown back after he walked away from his teammates last season, then went on a seek-and-destroy mission with Ben Roethlisberger, the front office, and even owner Art Rooney II.
This was more about Brown sticking it to the Steelers for whatever perceived slights -- in an effort to get a new contract -- than it was the Steelers getting snookered.