Pittsburgh trades Brown they incur a TWENTY ONE MILLION DOLLAR CAP HIT
Steelers not planning to release WR Antonio Brown
The Steelers face a $21 million cap hit if they trade Brown this offseason. The move could exhaust between eight and 10% of Pittsburgh's available cap space. However, the team can't do anything until March 13, which is the first official day of the 2019 NFL season.
I missed the part where the Steelers paid him a 19 million dollar bonus up front in 2017 and then redid the contract in 2018. That being said, 12.6 million dollars a season for a 31 year old WR is pretty steep by any metric and is UNHEARD OF for a WR playing for the Patriots. Again, let me spell that out...U-N-H-E-A-R-D O-F. You actually believe Bill Belichick is going to0 devote nearly one tenth of the Pats cap to a WR?? Like he has ever done something like this here the past 19 years?
You say Pitt would "never release him"? Odd. Read THIS paragraph from Steel Curtain about a June 1st release..
Release with the June 1 designation
If Pittsburgh could find no suitors this route would be the most palatable. The organization would still have to absorb the $21.12 million prorated signing bonus but the team could spread it out over two seasons. This does not happen evenly. The 2019 roster bonus would count against the cap but the remaining $14.08 would not be counted until 2020. The team could make the move before the roster bonus is due. The catch here is that the cap relief would not be given to the team until after June 1, 2019. Brown’s cap number for 2019 is $22,165,000 and Pittsburgh would only be on the hook for $7.04 million which means the Steelers would have an additional $15.125 million in cap space as long as the move was done before the roster bonus kicked in.
Salary cap implications for the Steelers if they move forward without Antonio Brown
so yeah, Pitt is going to TRY to sucker some moronic NFL team to take Brown off their hands after March 13th but....
The entire $21.12 million prorated signing bonus would immediately come due at the time of the trade in 2019. Pittsburgh would save just over $1 million on Brown’s cap number but would leave behind. The trade would need to be executed before the fifth day of the new league year to avoid the $2.5 million roster bonus. If they executed the trade after the fifth day of the league year the Steelers then would be underwater on cap savings.
To be absolutely clear, though....Brown is a pipe dream with that pipe filled with hash.