Steelers general manager Kevin Colbert said the team has made it a priority to extend the contract of Antonio Brown as soon as possible and are already in negotiations with the two-time All-Pro receiver.
Brown has one year remaining on a five-year, $42 million deal and the Steelers have already had active discussions with his agent, Drew Rosenhaus, who was in Pittsburgh last week.
Colbert said Brown is the only player with whom the Steelers have had any discussion about a new deal.
“I can say unequivocally we want Antonio Brown to retire as a Steeler, just as we want Le’Veon Bell to retire as a Steeler,” Colbert said today in a pre-combine meeting with a handful of reporters.
Bell is an unrestricted free agent who will likely be receive a franchise tag that would pay him somewhere between $11 and $12 million for the 2017 season. The Steelers and Bell would have till July 15 to negotiate a long-term deal, if they choose to do that. Otherwise, Bell would play for one season for the average of the top five paid running backs from the 2016 season.
“We have no reservations about him, not his durability or ability,” Colbert said of Bell, who has served a league-mandated suspension each of the past two seasons in addition to having injuries that halted the end of each of the past three seasons. “There is no hesitation for us to have him, hopefully, his entire career.”
First Published: February 16, 2017, 7:01 p.m.
