Antonio Brown has not participated in a single NFL game since 2019. That season, he played in one outing for the New England Patriots before ultimately being released.
The 32-year-old has been sitting at home ever since.
On Friday, ESPN NFL insider Jeremy Fowler reported that, thus far, the Houston Texans have shown the most interest in signing Brown.
The big issue with Brown isn’t his potential production. On the field, he is stellar.
It is all the baggage that comes with him off the field. He is still suspended until at least Week 9, and with him, you don’t know what will happen after that.
It is telling that there is this much apprehension about signing a wide receiver who was a Pro Bowler just two seasons ago.
Prior to 2019, Brown recorded more than 1,280 receiving yards over the span of six consecutive years. He also led the whole league in yardage and catches on two occasions during that time period.
Big picture, over the course of his career Brown has amassed 841 receptions for 11,253 yards and seven Pro Bowl appearances.
That explains it. https://t.co/dio3mGLGhE
— Game 7 (@game7__) September 25, 2020
On the field – the guy’s a stud.
Recently, Deion Sanders made a compelling case for why someone ought to take a chance on Brown again.
“You can trust him,” he said.
“You know why? Because he’s hungry. Because he hasn’t been on that stage — unless he was rapping — in quite some time, and he missed those wonderful, cool, loving hand claps of those adoring fans that named him and titled him ‘AB.’
“Oh, yes, you can trust him right now. You know why? Because he hasn’t received an NFL check in quite some time. When you separate a man from his money, life gets tough.”
So will Houston be the team to pull the trigger on Brown? There is definitely a legit argument to be made for it.
Currently, the 0-2 Texans badly miss wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins. They rank in the bottom four in the whole league in receiving touchdowns and bottom half of the league in total receptions.
Brown would obviously go some ways in rectifying that.
If the Texans don’t step up to the plate, it wouldn’t be all that shocking to see the Seattle Seahawks or Baltimore Ravens do so.
Sorry Gronk. https://t.co/7kSyF90vpq
— Game 7 (@game7__) September 24, 2020
Both Russell Wilson and Lamar Jackson have endorsed Brown in some capacity, so their respective franchises will no doubt at least kick the tires on a potential signing when the time comes.
That said, the Texans make the most sense out of all the teams involved. Deshaun Watson needs help – and Brown would be the perfect man for the job.
Brown’s status, one way or the other, should become clearer in the coming weeks.
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A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
