12-17-2019, 01:54 AM
ALAMEDA James Conner Jersey White , Calif. (AP) — The Oakland Raiders agreed on a deal Saturday night to acquire prolific but disgruntled receiver Antonio Brown from the Pittsburgh Steelers and will give him the lucrative new contract he wanted.A person with direct knowledge of the trade told The Associated Press that the Raiders finalized the deal with the Steelers and will give Brown a new three-year contract worth $50.125 million instead of the $38.925 million he was owed by Pittsburgh. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the deal can’t be completed until the new league year starts Wednesday.Pro Football Talk first reported the deal and says Pittsburgh will get third and fifth-round draft picks from Oakland.The trade makes final what became a very messy and very public divorce between Brown and the team that helped turn the sixth-round pick into arguably the greatest wide receiver of his generation.It also gives the Raiders a high-profile addition for second-year coach Jon Gruden after trading away two of the team’s biggest stars last year in edge rusher Khalil Mack and receiver Amari Cooper.Oakland got extra first-round picks in those trades but didn’t need to give up any of its four picks in the top 35 in the upcoming draft to acquire Brown, who has topped 100 receptions and 1,200 yards receiving in each of the past six seasons. The Raiders have had only one player reach those marks in a single season in franchise history, with Hall of Famer Tim Brown accomplishing the feat in 1997.Brown now gives quarterback Derek Carr his biggest offensive weapon since entering the league in 2014 and the Raiders a legitimate star before they move to Las Vegas for the 2020 season.The Raiders’ top wide receiver last season was Jordy Nelson, who had just 63 catches for 739 yards.Gruden has always admired Brown from his time as a broadcaster and had nothing but praise for the receiver before the teams played last December.“He’s the hardest working man, I think, in football Womens Jerome Bettis Jersey ,” Gruden said. “Hardest working player I’ve ever seen practice. I’ve seen Jerry Rice, I’ve seen a lot of good ones, but I put Antonio Brown at the top. If there are any young wideouts out there, I’d go watch him practice. You figure out yourself why he’s such a good player.”Brown was obviously pleased with the development, posting a picture of himself in a Raiders uniform and a video with Carr at a Pro Bowl with the caption “Love at first sight ” on his Twitter account.Brown is no stranger to drawing headlines for both his prolific on-field production and his off-the-field antics, including livestreaming from the locker room after a playoff win over Kansas City in January 2017 and getting pulled over for doing 100 mph in the northern Pittsburgh suburbs last fall.The sometimes tumultuous relationship between the only player in NFL history with six straight 100-catch seasons and the franchise that made him the highest-paid player at his position in the spring of 2017 reached a breaking point in late December.Steelers coach Mike Tomlin benched Brown during the regular-season finale against Cincinnati after the wide receiver went radio silent in the final 48 hours before the game. Brown arrived in a fur coat, hung out for a half and then disappeared from view until well after his teammates had cleaned out their lockers following a 9-6-1 finish that left Pittsburgh on the outside of the playoffs for the first time since 2013.When Brown did resurface Jerome Bettis Jersey , he began engaging in a series of increasingly antagonistic acts designed to expedite his departure. He went on Instagram with former Steelers linebacker James Harrison during Tomlin’s season wrap-up press conference. He decried quarterback Ben Roethlisberger’s “owner’s mentality” and chastised Tomlin for disciplining him in Week 17, no matter that Tomlin and the rest of the organization had spent years downplaying Brown’s off-the-field eccentricities.Brown officially requested a trade last month, but not before photo-shopping his familiar No. 84 onto a San Francisco 49ers jersey or using his hyperactive social media feeds to indicate not only his displeasure with the Steelers but also his interest in signing a new deal with whomever should acquire his services.Even with his benching in the finale, Brown caught 104 passes for 1,297 yards and a franchise-record and NFL-high 15 touchdowns. His last performance in a Pittsburgh uniform might have been one of his best, a 14-reception, 185-yard James Conner Jersey , two-touchdown masterpiece in a road loss to New Orleans.A week later, the player who once said he wanted to retire a Steeler didn’t even suit up against the Bengals. Just over two months later, he now finds himself heading to the second act of a career that’s on a Hall of Fame trajectory and the Steelers have a hole at receiver and more than $21 million in dead money on their salary cap.Analyzing the Pittsburgh Steelers’ Week 3 win over the Bucs, by the numbers 49 yardsJames Conner definitely did not have a record-setting game rushing the ball. His final stat line was 61 yards on 15 carries. But when it mattered, he came through in a big way. In the final two drives of the game, Conner had 49 yards on 5 carries. One of those carries was a 4-yard loss on a strange sequence where Ben Roethlisberger changed the play at the line and then almost missed the handoff. The play put the Steelers behind the sticks and helped kill the drive.The most important run of the night was the 17 yard rush right before the two-minute warning to put the team in victory formation. There was no secret as to what the Steelers were going to do as they lined up with their jumbo package in an obvious running formation. But Conner managed to break free while staying inbounds for a game-clinching play.75 yardsYes, Vance McDonald had a nice 75-yard touchdown catch and run which included a posterizing stiff arm. But that wasn’t the most impressive 75 yards of the night. The 9 play https://www.thesteelerslockerroom.com/au...nds-jersey , 75-yard touchdown drive in 1:09 to end the first half was a thing of beauty. On the drive, Ben Roethlisberger was 8/9 for 74 yards to five different receivers. The only other yard on the drive was the one yard penalty for pass interference. It was arguably the most important possession of the game for the Steelers as they were answering a Tampa Bay field goal knowing the Bucs would received the second-half kickoff.22/235The total number of penalties in this game was ridiculous. I understand the penalties the first week, and perhaps even the second, but things should be much more cleaned up by week three. Of those 22 penalties for 235 yards, 155 yards on 13 flags were attributed to the Steelers.are ridiculous. Something needs to improve as the season continues. But the total number of penalties and yards for this primetime game is something the league cannot afford to continue. The massive number of penalties makes for an inferior product to showcase on a Monday night.1The Steelers did not score in the second half of this game. A big reason for this was they only had one possession in the third quarter. On said possession, the Steelers moved the ball 46 yards on 11 plays enroute to a 47-yard missed field goal attempt.The biggest reason the Steelers only had one possession in the third quarter was the opening drive of the half for Tampa which took 7:53. It was actually a nice job by the defense to keep the Bucs out of the end zone after being on the field for so long.1140For the first time in his career Womens Terrell Edmunds Jersey , Ben Roethlisberger has passed for more than 300 yards in each of the first three weeks of the season. Ben has a total of 1140 yards which averages to 380 per game. The closest Ben has ever come to this total in his career was 2011 when he passed for 942 yards (314 per game) the opening three weeks, leading the Steelers to a 2–1 record.Before this season, Roethlisberger’s record for consecutive 300 yard games to start a season was in 2015 when he passed for 300+ the first two weeks. Unfortunately the streak came to an end during a week-three win in St. Louis when Ben left in the third quarter with a knee injury which kept him out of the next three games.Roethlisberger’s longest streak of consecutive games throwing for 300 yards or more during the same season is four games in 2015 (weeks 9-12). Ben will get a chance to tie that record next week at home against the Ravens on Sunday night.