Grading the Antonio Brown trade for Oakland Raiders, Pittsburgh Steelers

Pittsburgh Steelers Grade

For the most part, Antonio Brown put the Pittsburgh Steelers in a no-win situation. Not only did he back them into a corner in regards to his future with the team, but the fact that he could essentially control where he would be traded given his desire for a new contract made it even more of a difficult situation for the Steelers in this whole ordeal.

You could certainly argue that the culture that the Steelers have built — or lack thereof, depending on how you want to slice it — with egos and divas running rampant is partially to blame as to why they were put in this predicament with Brown in the first place. However, we aren’t going to be considering that part here while trying to hand out a grade.

Considering that the Steelers signed off on a trade for Brown, you have to believe that they are at least somewhat happy with what they are getting in return with a third- and fifth-round pick coming from Oakland. After all, that third is a solid top-75 pick that should be beneficial to Pittsburgh, and any draft capital is good for a team that, despite having talent, does have some noticeable holes.

While that all may be true, it’s hard to not look at this situation and think that Pittsburgh got pushed around a bit. All signs indicate that the deal with Buffalo would’ve been better for the Steelers, but they were in a spot where Brown called the shots and killed that deal. Subsequently, they felt so vehemently that they had to get rid of the wideout that they settled for a lesser deal of mid-round picks.

That’s tough to swallow right now, and could be even tougher to swallow if their reputation as an organization now takes a hit in the aftermath of this. It’s going to be difficult to appear strong when the team clearly just took its lumps in all of this.

Final Grade: C-