Steelers Aim to Keep Brown Happy With Pay Raise

Prior to offseason team activities for the 2015 season, it was rumored that Pittsburgh Steelers star wide receiver Antonio Brown was planning to hold-out, seeking a new deal following a season in which Brown led the NFL in receptions and receiving yards.

Antonio Brown, the NFL's leading wide-out in 2014 - courtesy of footballperspective.com

In 2014, Antonio Brown established himself as one of the league's premier wide receivers after racking up 1,698 yards on 129 receptions, leading the NFL in both statistics.  He also tacked on 13 touchdowns as Brown became a leading weapon on a potent Steelers offense.

Heading into 2015, wide receivers have established themselves as top earners in the NFL, where historically quarterbacks, defensive tackles and edge rushers, and blind-side offensive tackles have been the top earners.  Wide receivers can now consider themselves in the upper echelon of contract earning potential.  With this trend, Brown has watched wide-outs such as Demaryius Thomas, Dez Bryant, and more recently, Julio Jones all receive huge paydays heading into the 2015 season, leaving him, now (following the Julio Jones contract) as the 15th highest paid wide receiver in the league (per www.overthecap.com), behind even Mike Wallace, the former Steelers wide-out who Brown has surpassed in terms of production.

With AB being the top receiver in 2014 in terms of receptions and total receiving yards, the threat and rumors lurking of a hold-out, while not popular with fans nor teammates, is certainly merited.  Take into account Brown being the league's premier receiver, yet was due more than $10 million less than the top earning wide receiver is scheduled to receive in 2015, and one can understand Brown's frustration.

Obviously, the Steelers not only sensed Brown's frustration but are seeking to keep the standout wide receiver content until after the 2015 season.  News broke this afternoon that the Steelers have restructured Brown's contract to give their number one offensive threat in the passing game a $2 million pay increase this year.  While this still doesn't put Brown even close to the $14 million due to Dez Bryant and Demaryius Thomas, it communicates to AB that the Steelers front office is interested in keeping the Pro Bowl talent happy.  The contract structure also communicates to Brown that the Steelers are interested in incentivizing his performance, but sticking to the rigid Steelers rule of not negotiating contracts during the offseason.

The restructuring comes as part of a three-player restructuring to clear up some cap room, with preseason winding down, and Steelers needing to address the contract of recently traded kicker Josh Scobee from the Jaguars who was due $3.4 million this year.  In the move, Kevin Colbert took $2 million of the salary due to Brown in 2016 and applied it as a 2015 signing bonus.  Brown's 2015 earnings increase from the $6 million salary he was due this year to $8 million.  The other two players included in contract restructurings were TE Heath Miller and K Shaun Suisham.

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