Will the Steelers be better without Antonio Brown in 2019?

‘Addition by subtraction’ is how the old saying goes. We may find that to ring true for the Steelers in 2019 without Antonio Brown.

There is no doubt that Antonio Brown was among the very best wide receivers in the league during his prime. Before last season, he was on a stretch of four consecutive All-Pro selections (which is an incredibly hard feat).

But over the past two years, Brown’s antics have become completely unbearable and utterly ridiculous.

Starting with the Facebook live incident, Brown quickly spiraled out of control – so much so that Pittsburgh was willing to deal a potential Hall of Fame player for a 3rd and a 5th round draft choices.

The Steelers have spent the last couple of months trying to move on from the Brown fiasco, but his negative comments are as fresh as yesterday. Here’s what Brown was saying as Ben Roethlisberger sat down with Bob Pompeani of KDKA  for an interview:

Some of Brown’s tweets can be quite difficult to decipher, but I don’t think it is a coincidence that his ‘two face’ comment was made as Ben Roethlisberger sat down for his interview.

Antonio Brown has gotten into a bad habit of spewing his thoughts on social media – whether they are good or bad. Even without AB on the Steelers, the drama still insists.

The Steelers have a group of young, high character receivers in the locker room this year. Though none of them will ever be as good on the field as Antonio Brown, there are other ways they could make up for that.

It is important to remember that Brown wasn’t the most efficient receiver in the league last year. Roethlisberger often forced him the ball to keep him satisfied, but this led to a total of 11 interceptions (between Ben and Josh Dobbs) thrown in Browns direction last season.

Brown was a great receiver, and I’m not taking that away from him. However, it’s possible that the Steelers could be better without Antonio Brown in 2019.