LOS ANGELES -- Antonio Brown will be traded.
We can agree on that much, right?
OK, can we also agree that, out of 31 other NFL teams, there will be one that offers the Steelers a first-round draft pick?
From there, Kevin Colbert, Mike Tomlin and all involved need only to wait to see which pick is the highest — or which package comes with the thickest sweeteners — accept it and move forward.
My God, that’s all there is to this. Nothing else is left of any consequence on that front.
If the entirety of the Nation leaps to attention every time time AB talks, squawks or slaps up some optionally punctuated sentence on social media, there’s going to be a great actual football conversation missed. Because this summer, at least as I see it, affords this franchise an off-season opportunity unlike any I can recall to authoritatively address glaring weaknesses.
Sure, AB's $22 million cap hit shrinks by a measly $1 million if he's traded. But Le’Veon Bell also won’t be back, Ramon Foster's a virtual lock to leave through free agency, and the total estimated cap space for 2019 is $28 million. With more space possible with a few routine moves. And that figure is far more flexible than any the Steelers will have enjoyed in a long time.
AB, Bell and Foster are three talented players, with AB in a stratosphere all his own. But it would be silly to suggest they aren’t replaceable within the concept of this 53-man roster.
The Steelers have a No. 1 receiver in JuJu Smith-Schuster. He’ll get extra attention, but he was getting that through the second half of this past season, anyway. He’ll beat it. He’s very good with a very real chance to be great.
Put it another way: On how many teams would he already have been the No. 1?
More than half?
All but a handful?
The issue for the Steelers will be a bona fide No. 2. James Washington began emerging late in the season, but that’s standard for rookie receivers. He’s got the eclectic but effective combination of being a deep threat via combat catches while also staying closer for possession plays. He’s hardly complete, but there’s lots to like.
Get more. Use the cash, use the draft — always lots of plug-and-play receivers there — and get someone to push Washington.
Running back?
No one needs me to elaborate on what James Conner did. Or, for that matter, how it became clearer than ever, once Jaylen Samuels was forced into action, that the offensive line is the far bigger deal in this equation.
Not sure I’d add anyone here.
The line?
Foster leaving will be a hit. But Matt Feiler can slide back to his natural guard slot, and he’ll do so with unprecedented confidence after solid work in Marcus Gilbert’s extended absence at right tackle. That's to say nothing of B.J. Finney's own work at guard. Now, if Gilbert isn’t brought back — and I'll be surprised if he isn't — that could press Chuks Okorafor into sophomore starting duty, and it’s suddenly 40 percent turnover. That’s rough on any line, where chemistry is paramount.
Regardless, I’ve made it this far and still haven’t invested that excess cash into anything beyond a No. 2 receiver. Which, again, might well emerge from the draft.
What to do with the rest?
How about a big-time, playmaking, not-a-crime-against-humanity-to-drop-him-into-coverage inside linebacker?
Colbert and Tomlin never replaced Ryan Shazier in 2018, and they indefensibly strolled into Latrobe extolling the virtues of Tyler Matakevich. Don’t make me play back the tape. He seldom saw a snap other than special teams, and there was cause for that even then. They should have known.
That positional wrong needs to be made right. Emphatically.
It’s also time to pony up for a big-time, playmaking corner opposite Joe Haden. And no, this one unconditionally can’t come from the draft because there’s no meaningful precedent to suggest Colbert and Tomlin can identify corners at the collegiate level. Don’t make me name the names of those they found.
Go find a better one. Spend what it takes.
And note that I included playmaking for both. That’s mandatory. Because it’s sure not coming from many other components of this defense, so these two players have to be that balance.
This can happen. All of it.
And it’ll be infinitely more interesting to see how it does than endless streams of nothing drivel:
All the things I know I still been silent doe #Donotdisturb
— Antonio Brown (@AB84) January 14, 2019
• It’s unfathomable to me that anyone could concoct any argument for the Steelers to continue employing the individual.
Step back from the situation, if possible, and process this alone: He walked out on his team on the week of a must-win NFL game ... over nothing.
There’s no recovery, no rehab from that.
• If this wasn’t already clear up there, I’d love to see Gilbert back. It’d be too much change, as noted, and he’s obviously outstanding at the job. But also, this is one of the most passionate athletes I’m currently covering in this city. He’ll be hungrier than ever in 2019.
• Mike Munchak just made a lateral move to Denver. He'll turn 59 in a couple months. He has a daughter and granddaughter there he'd like to see more often. And some are so desperate for more drama they're manufacturing ways to attack this, too. It's sickening.
• That Kansas City offense vs. that New England defense might represent the most lopsided football-facet matchup in recent playoff history. Unless Bill Belichick’s brain can morph into a 24-year-old Darrelle Revis, it won’t be a factor.
• I’m all-in on the Saints. Best team I saw all season ... even though they were outplayed the one time I watched them in person in New Orleans.
Think what that says about the team that lost that day.
• Remember what Jim Rutherford told me over the weekend out in Anaheim about Tristan Jarry’s future with the Penguins, how it’ll require ‘making a decision’ before next season because of his waiver status?
Some interpreted that news immediately as if Rutherford will put Jarry on the block now, before the NHL’s Feb. 25 trade deadline.
Don’t do that.
Bear in mind, as I reaffirmed in our conversation, this GM doesn’t see two goaltenders as satisfactory playoff depth. I joked with him that he always needs his Jeff Zatkoff around — hey, you never know — and he agreed that it’s ideal having three.
Well, without Jarry, there aren’t three.
• I’ll maintain Olli Maatta seems likeliest to go. Young, affordable, two rings to his resume, and he can bring back value. Jamie Oleksiak’s the other, but let’s not pretend Tom Wilson isn’t waiting on the other side of the playoff fence. A coach can’t dress a tough guy to counter Wilson. It’s got to be a hockey player. Oleksiak is the only one in the organization capable of both.
• Not to play doctor, but man, here’s hoping the Penguins’ medical people have enough common sense to keep Patric Hornqvist out until after the All-Star break. Only three games remain, beginning tonight in San Jose, and none are anywhere near as important as the chance to get nearly three full weeks of rest and recovery from his sixth reported concussion since 2016-17.
That’s reported. We actually have no idea how many he’s had.
It’s not like he’s capable of being careful once he returns to action. Make him rest. Monitor the symptoms.
• If the Penguins come out on top tonight, it’ll be a top-three road win for them on the season, right up there with Winnipeg and Washington. The Sharks got blown out of the playoffs last spring, but unlike their California brethren to the south, they’ve just kept loading up, both internally through smart drafts and externally through Erik Karlsson. A good challenge at a good time, fresh off the strange game in L.A.
• The more I observe of Dominik Simon in practices and skates, it’s not so much that he can’t finish. He can. It’s just that he doesn’t bear down in games. He chooses a lesser shot just to push it on net, which is a common AHL trait he still hasn’t shaken.
• Marcus Pettersson’s legs are pencils. Never seen anything like it on a hockey player. Not even on a goaltender.
• Thickest hockey legs ever: Pavel Bure. It’s like he was skating on telephone poles.
• Completely groundless wish list for the Penguins among potentially available wingers: Jakub Silfverberg, Jeff Carter and ... eh, I can’t add Wayne Simmonds with a clear conscience. No chance a Paul Holmgren-led front office in Philadelphia contributes to another Pittsburgh championship.
• Connor McDavid needs to get the hell out of Edmonton, where the NHL’s next-gen player is headed hard toward missing the Stanley Cup playoffs for the third time in four years.
And there was this yesterday, a late but no less glorious Christmas gift from Peter Chiarelli to the league's other 30 GMs:
Oilers organization is on a full court press to find help at forward. Scouts and staff deployed en masse.
Cap situation could make it tough, but first round pick, a goaltender, maybe a young developing forward likely all in play.
— Ryan Rishaug (@TSNRyanRishaug) January 14, 2019
Hey, kids, come get the next Taylor Hall!
Actually, as I wrote on the day McDavid made that famous frowny face as the Oilers won the draft lottery, he needed to not go there at all. Only way things change there is with a total transfusion of ownership, front office and probably out to the concession stands. That’s what happened in Pittsburgh after Mario Lemieux missed the playoffs his first five years.
• One of the many problems the Oilers have faced is common across Canada: As soon as a player shows even modest promise, he’s blown up into the Next Big Thing. A couple years ago, I was one of the few anywhere, I think, laughing at the popular notion that they’d arrived, especially after hearing ridiculous statements like Wayne Gretzky comparing the Oilers’ 1-2 punch of McDavid and, uh, Leon Draisaitl, to Crosby and Malkin.
• This thing is the worst by far in Toronto. If they could, the folks up there would resurrect Michelangelo to carve a statue for Mitch Marner.
• There’s no sugarcoating this: The Pirates, as this is being typed, have willfully, knowingly downgraded at shortstop. Erik Gonzalez is a downgrade from Jordy Mercer. Kevin Newman isn’t even a big-league shortstop. And Neal Huntington has spoken, at least for public consumption, that these options are acceptable.
I know baseball’s ‘out of sight, out of mind’ for the moment, but how is this OK?
• The Brewers placed calls to the Giants about Madison Bumgarner. Insert obligatory line about Milwaukee being two-thirds the size of Pittsburgh, sprinkle in something about drafting and developing and — boom! — it’ll feel like pitchers and catchers are right around the corner!
• Best wishes to a truly spectacular human being, the one and only Steve Blass, on a fun, successful final season in the Pirates’ booth. If people could fully know or see his passion for this franchise — in particular the way he cares for fellow alumni players, keeping in constant contact with them — they’d understand that much more about the proudest modern era of baseball in Pittsburgh. Those guys stick together. And Blass is the glue.
• The man pitched a complete Game 7 in the 1971 World Series. Think about that. It's like Bill Mazeroski stretched over nine full innings.
• Taking a couple days down after the long trip. Send all complaints to the boss. She’ll file them accordingly.
