With the news of Antonio Brown’s release from the Raiders, you can bet that other NFL teams have already been doing due diligence on the potential hazards of acquiring a receiver who has made himself toxic in the last calendar year — but who also has transcendent talent that had him on a Hall of Fame track before everything fell apart.
The team that takes a chance on Brown at this point after all his travails likely needs to have a few common traits if there’s half a chance of the marriage working out. That team should have an alpha head coach who commands respect. That team should have depth issues at receiver that make the risk worth it. That team should have a strong locker room, and that team should be on a winning track. It’s difficult to imagine Brown fitting in where he doesn’t have a chance to win, or where he doesn’t respect the people in charge.
It’s also important to remember that Brown might not get signed right away, due to an important contractual point.
With those parameters in mind, here are the four teams that make the most sense.
New England Patriots
This is the obvious answer, for all the obvious reasons. There’s Belichick and Brady. There’s a constant winning track, and there’s a Patriots receiver corps that now relies a great deal on Josh Gordon keeping his own life together. The Patriots traded a fourth-round draft pick to the Raiders for Randy Moss in 2006 back when Moss was seen as a malingerer on the way out of the NFL based on attitude and performance. In 2007, of course, Moss put together the single greatest full receiver season in NFL history. Belichick and his staff have tons of justified confidence in their ability to identify and utilize players who have fallen out of favor in other places, but will line up when the Patriots come calling. And as long as Brown runs his routes the way he’s supposed to, Brady will be on board.
Dallas Cowboys
The Cowboys don’t have the alpha coach in Jason Garrett, but they are on the uptick from a winning perspective. They also have former Raiders receiver Amari Cooper and second-year man Michael Gallup, who looks like one of the league’s most promising receivers. The Cooper-Brown-Gallup combination would give new offensive coordinator Kellen Moore all kinds of options, and with a healthy offensive line, Dak Prescott under center, Ezekiel Elliott behind him, and a defense on the rise, you can imagine that Jerry Jones would find this highly interesting. Jones, of course, has no issue taking chances on volatile personalities, though his hit rate isn’t quite as successful Belichick’s has been.
Seattle Seahawks
Through the tenures of coach Pete Carroll and general manager John Schneider, the Seahawks have been very active when it comes to veterans who wore out their welcomes elsewhere, and you can bet Schneider has been on the phones already to see how it might happen if the word in the building is that Brown is worth the risk. The Percy Harvin experiment didn’t go well for a lot of the reasons Brown is currently on the outs — temperamental flare-ups that led to sideline sit-outs — but that doesn’t mean they wouldn’t try again. Especially after Doug Baldwin’s retirement, Seattle is in desperate need of a veteran route wizard to pair with Tyler Lockett and a cadre of young targets. The Seahawks base their passing game off play-action and deep shots, which would fit Brown’s skill set ideally. New England is the front-runner here, but Seattle wouldn’t be a surprise at all.
Baltimore Ravens
Brown’s division rival from his time with the Steelers is currently experiencing a change in offensive philosophy with quarterback Lamar Jackson, who’s still learning to be a full-skill passer at the NFL level. Let’s look at Baltimore’s current receiver depth chart:
Willie Snead, Miles Boykin, Marquise Brown, Seth Roberts, Jaleel Scott, Chris Moore.
Not exactly a group that will inspire fear and loathing in enemy defenses. Brown would be a colossal upgrade for that group. The Ravens are once again set to have a top-flight defense and running game, but their lack of receiving talent could capsize the offense.
Here’s another factor that might get the Ravens all in — Antonio Brown and Marquise Brown, Baltimore’s first-round receiver out of Oklahoma, are cousins.
“He just leads by example when we work out together, watch film. He shows me how to treat my body every day — everyday things,” Brown said of his older cousin at the 2019 scouting combine. “Any time he gets the ball, he wants to score as well. In that sense, we’ve got the same type of thinking and mentality — we want the ball, get the ball and score.”
Perhaps the positive distraction and inspiration of working with a family member would be enough to keep Brown on the right track. It would certainly increase Baltimore’s Super Bowl hopes if it were to work out. Head coach John Harbaugh has enough weight in the organization to make this a credible fit.
Touchdown Wire editor Doug Farrar has also covered football for Yahoo! Sports, Sports Illustrated, Bleacher Report, the Washington Post, and Football Outsiders. His first book, “The Genius of Desperation,” a schematic history of professional football, was published by Triumph Books in 2018.
