Why the Carolina Panthers shouldn’t sign Antonio Brown

Brown Released by Oakland

Wide receiver Antonio Brown was released by the Oakland Raiders Saturday following his request via Instagram to be released from the team. His release comes on the heels of the eight-year veteran apologizing to the Raiders for his recent behavior and Jon Gruden saying Brown would play the team’s first game.

With his release, he is now a free agent and free to sign with any team that may want him, including potentially the Carolina Panthers.

Brown is capable of being the top guy in any offense, but I’m here to tell you why the Panthers shouldn’t take him.

Brown Is Good, But His Stats Don’t Lead to Success

I’m not questioning Brown’s football skills here, he is without a doubt one of the best players at the position at the moment. But when it comes to the team’s relative on field success, his numbers don’t translate to winning.

Football Outsiders has Brown’s Defensive-adjusted Value Over Average (or DVOA) ranked at -2.3 percent, that is below average, which for most players is zero. Beyond that, the Panthers already have a player on the team who ranked higher in DVOA last season than “Mr. Big Chest”, and that my friends is D.J. Moore. Furthermore, Brown’s DVOA wasn’t even the highest on his team at the position, that honor went to JuJu Smith-Schuster.

Further more, despite leading the league in touchdowns last season, Brown wasn’t productive in between the end zones. Of the 15 games he played last season, he registered 75 yards or fewer in seven of those games. Brown didn’t even register any stats the final game of the year, as he was benched following skipping practice that week, stemming from a spat with Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger.

The Panthers Don’t Have Any Room on the Cap for Brown

The Panthers had very little cap room following its free agency signings of Bruce Irvin and Matt Parardis, beyond that, we could only sign Gerald McCoy after his release from Tampa Bay on a one-year rental contract purely because the team couldn’t afford a long term deal just yet.

Wherever AB goes, is going to have to do one of two things: 1. Pay him a guaranteed contract to make sure he stays happy wherever he’s at (we’ll get into that in a second) and 2. They will need to give him a long term deal to get the security he needs from his contract.

The Panthers right now don’t have that cap space for Brown to join the team, especially since Christian McCaffrey is going to probably ask for a contract extension following this season with the team.

Brown’s Off-The-Field Antics Could Break the Panthers

While Brown’s antics are certainly great for us in the sports media industry, as it constantly gives us content, it’s usually miserable for the teams that he played for recently.

Brown is going to be on his third team THIS YEAR, not in three years, not in two years, this year. Most of the reasons his former teams have jettisoned him are strictly because his talent no longer outweighed his attitude.

Things would be great in the beginning, Brown would be happy to play with Cam Newton, but how many times do you think it would take for Cam to run on a play that was designed for the wideout to get the ball? My guess is not many.

Beyond that, If Brown were to get fined in anyway, he would drag everyone through the mud and dirt and it would make the on the field product suffer, as it did during the Steelers final game of the year last season.

He would undoubtedly take unnecessary shots at the younger receivers on his roster if things would get sour too, and since Steve Smith hasn’t set foot in Carolina in quite some time, I’m not sure how that would go.

If Agent 89 was still on the team, I don’t AB would be a huge problem and he might be kept in check by Newton, but the risk does not outweigh AB’s talent and the Panthers should not go after him.