The Steelers don’t touch the contracts of non-quarterbacks with more than a year left on their deals. Unless they do.
Jeremy Fowler of ESPN.com reports that the Steelers and Drew Rosenhaus, who represents receiver Antonio Brown, are talking about the player’s contract. Despite the report, Steelers G.M. Kevin Colbert strongly suggested on Friday that Brown’s case won’t be handled differently.
“We believe in our philosophy,” Colbert told reporters, via Fowler. “I don’t see that changing, but I’ll never address a player individually.”
(Of course, Colbert addressed Brown’s situation in March, saying that the Steelers “expect the contract to be honored without any issue.”)
Despite the team’s refusal to extend a non-quarterback contract with more than a year remaining, last year the Steelers moved $2 million of Brown’s 2016 base salary into 2015. This year, however, there’s now $2 million less in Brown’s base salary.
Ed Bouchette of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette recently suggested on PFT Live that the team would likely do it again, borrowing from Brown’s $8.7 million salary in 2017 to pump up his 2016 base pay. The 8.7 million dollar question becomes how much will be moved? With Brown undoubtedly in line to get an extension next year, the money on the books for 2017 becomes irrelevant.
The negotiations for 2016, then, will focus on determining how much of the 2017 base salary that will be wiped clean with a new contract in a year should be slid into the current year.
