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Steelers receivers moving forward
Photo
Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Antonio Brown (84) and tight end Leonard Pope (45) celebrate after Brown made a touchdown catch in the third quarter of a football game against the Cleveland Browns in Pittsburgh.
Associated Press
PITTSBURGH
Antonio Brown wasn’t making a fashion statement, just a personal one.
While the rest of his Pittsburgh Steelers teammates worked out in black shorts during organized team activities on Tuesday, the fourth-year wide receiver darted through traffic in yellow football pants even though the first live practice won’t come for another two months.
“I just want to be ready,” Brown said.
Considering what lay ahead for the now unquestioned leader of a new-look receiving corps, a head start seems like a pretty good idea.
The departure of Pro Bowler Mike Wallace to Miami during the offseason leaves Brown and Emmanuel Sanders as the longest tenured wideouts in Pittsburgh, heady territory for players considered complimentary parts when the Steelers grabbed them three rounds apart in the 2010 Draft.
Now they are the present — and at least in Brown’s case — the future. It’s a notion Brown has tried to downplay, but one that has become reality after he signed a six-year extension last summer while Wallace sat at home during a lengthy holdout, the beginning of a season-long goodbye that ended with Wallace signing a $60-million free agent deal with the Dolphins.
Brown understands “guys come and go all the time” and doesn’t feel any more pressure than usual to produce now that he’s the one with the most zeroes in his contract.
“I’m just going to do whatever they ask me,” he said. “I think I’m capable of making plays. I’ve always felt that way no matter who else is playing.”
Maybe, but with Wallace gone, defenses are going to turn their attention to Brown. He lacks Wallace’s gamebreaking speed, but has remarkably soft hands and made the Pro Bowl as a kick returner in 2011 because of his ability to create havoc in the open field.
It’s a skill set that is tailor-made for offensive coordinator Todd Haley’s intricate passing scheme. Brown was in the midst of a career season last fall before an ankle injury forced him to miss a significant three-week stretch in November. He returned to catch touchdown passes in each of Pittsburgh’s final four games and finished with 66 receptions for 787 yards and five scores.
Pro-rate those numbers over a full 16-game schedule and they’re Pro Bowl-caliber, though that did little to quell the disappointment of an 8-8 season.
“We know what the standard is and we didn’t meet it,” Brown said. “That goes for all of us.”
Though Brown considers himself just another guy in the receivers’ room, his teammates know he faces great expectations. Their job is to help him meet them.
“Antonio Brown, I think, is going to one of the most feared receivers in the league this year,” veteran Plaxico Burress said. “And I’m going to do everything in my power to help him get to the level where he can be an elite receiver.”
That includes making defenses pay for focusing too much on Brown. Burress returned to Pittsburgh last November hoping to give an injury-riddled passing game a boost. Instead, he struggled to get up to speed and caught only three passes.