Antonio Brown received more money, and the Steelers hung onto their policy regarding contract extensions.
It was a win-win for both sides when the Steelers advanced Brown $4 million this year from his 2017 salary under a restructured deal the All-Pro receiver signed Wednesday morning before the team left for its final preseason game at Carolina.
His compensation for this season thus increases to $10.25 million, a league source told the Post-Gazette. It is similar to last year, when they advanced him $2 million of his 2016 salary.
It is, in essence, a one-year deal because next year they will negotiate a new multiple-year deal with Brown before the season starts.
The Steelers are still negotiating to sign guard David DeCastro to a new contract before the season opens Sept. 12, when another team policy dictates all contract negotiations end until next year.
The team created more than $5 million in salary cap room last week by restructuring the contracts of Marcus Gilbert and Mike Mitchell. They needed $2 million of that to redo Brown ($2 million of his $4 million will count vs. the cap in 2016). A new deal for DeCastro most likely will reduce his 2016 cap hit that now stands at $8 million.
Brown’s new contract allows the Steelers to give him a raise without violating their policy of not extending contracts unless a player is entering his final season, excluding quarterbacks. Brown was supposed to receive $8.7 million in salary in 2017 and though that has been reduced to $4.7 million, it matters little because this time next year Brown and the Steelers likely will come to an entirely new multiple-year contract and tear up the old one for 2017.
Thus, Brown received $6 million in advances in 2015 and 2016 on his future salaries and it will mean $4 million in real money to him once next year’s deal is torn up and he receives an entirely new one.
Brown sent a photo of himself and his agents, Drew and his brother Jason Rosenhaus, from the Steelers South Side headquarters this morning. Brown is sitting with pen in hand and an apparent contract on the table.
Boomin @RosenhausSports #Steelers pic.twitter.com/0JUg1gnlNc
— Antonio Brown (@AntonioBrown84) August 31, 2016
General manager Kevin Colbert, asked several times this year about Brown’s request for a new deal, has always pointed to the team’s policy of not extending contracts of players who still have two years left on their current deals, as does Brown. The only exception they have made is for their starting quarterbacks.
Brown’s agents made the case that the Steelers should make a special case for a special player, and that indeed is what the All-Pro receiver has been for them.
His 526 receptions are the most in NFL history in a player’s first six years in the league, since the Steelers drafted him in the sixth round from Central Michigan in 2010. He became the first player in history with at least 125 receptions in consecutive years, including his 136 last season, which were second most in NFL history.
He is now being compensated more commensurate to the way he has played. While his average per year does not technically increase because of the $4 million “advanced” from 2017, looking at it as a one-year, $10.25 million deal puts him among the top 11 wide receivers based on average, according to the website OverTheCap. There, Cincinnati’s A.J. Green leads wide receivers with an average of $15 million on a deal that runs through 2019.
Ed Bouchette: ebouchette@post-gazette.com
First Published: August 31, 2016, 3:01 p.m.
Updated: August 31, 2016, 4:28 p.m.
