The Buccaneers won’t have receiver Antonio Brown at practice until Wednesday, and he won’t play until Sunday night. But as they prepare to face the Giants on Monday night without Brown, coach Bruce Arians looked forward to A.B.'s arrival.
Asked by Lisa Salters of ESPN to explain the difference in his attitude toward Brown a couple of months ago (Arians didn’t want Brown) and now, Arians was blunt and pragmatic.
“We were real healthy a couple of months ago, and the injuries we’ve gone through with our receiver corps, we just needed some insurance,” Arians said. “And when you’re losing Pro Bowl players, very seldom can you ever replace them with one, and somebody that I think’s gonna buy in and adapt to what we wanna do. So we pulled the trigger, and we’re kind of excited about it.”
They should be. Brown can still play at a high level; his on-field performance has never been an issue. Other things have derailed his career.
Other things still may. For now, though, Brown has his latest second chance. However long it lasts, it should go well.
