8 most disappointing trades in Pittsburgh Steelers history

Antonio Brown sabotages trade value

Of all of the trades that Pittsburgh Steelers have made in my lifetime, very few get me more fired up than this one. It wasn’t that the team should have kept Antonio Brown — that was out of the question at this point — rather, that the All-Pro receiver sabotaged his trade value before forcing himself out of Pittsburgh.

A year earlier, a laundry list of problems were piling up for Brown, and I wrote about why the Steelers need to trade him. Had they elected to move him when I suggested, Brown — who was still playing at an elite level — could have hauled in a first-round pick and more.

Sadly, the Steelers pushed the envelope and waited until AB was completely out of control with some serious accusations pending against him before electing it was time to move on. When they did try to trade him to Buffalo, Brown threw a fit and said that he wasn’t going to play for them.

In the end, Antonio Brown not only forced Pittsburgh’s hand, but he chose his landing spot, and Pittsburgh was able to garner just a third-round pick for a generational wide receiver. Though the Raiders certainly didn’t get their value’s worth either, Brown should have been traded earlier for much more draft capital.