Smoke connecting the Seahawks to troubled star catcher Antonio Brown continues to ripple, as Seattle continues to search for an addition to its passing game and Brown continues to search for a way back to the NFL after forcing himself to retire. year.
On Monday, ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler was asked about the Seahawks’ interest in Brown and offered his understanding of the two. “The Seahawks have delved into Antonio Brown, they have done a lot of research on him,” Fowler said. “Now, anyway, they’ve been doing that with a lot of free agents, but given his talent, they’ve researched it and feel they have a good understanding of who he is as a player and as a crucial person, given his problems outside of countryside “.
Fowler followed up on those comments with a massively important warning, adding: “Now, don’t expect a signature to be imminent right now, it may not happen at all. They are certainly monitoring the information, but several teams are on hold with Brown because they are waiting for the suspension. The NFL has not indicated how many games Brown will be suspended for his problems, but there will be at least some, that’s what every team expects. “
The latest on Brown and Seattle only reaffirms what had already been made clear, that the Seahawks have had internal discussions about adding the catcher. That was clear last year when Pete Carroll admitted that the team revised Brown after his release from the Raiders. It was evident through Russell Wilson and Brown working together. It was made clear earlier this offseason, by a report by NFL Network’s Mike Silver that named Seattle as a team that had discussed Brown.
However, it also reaffirms another important part of any conversation around Brown and the Seahawks – that any team interest might simply not matter. Just as Fowler added the warning to his report that any team interested in Brown will wait for the NFL to give him a suspension, so did Silver in his initial report, calling Seattle a team that would be “interested in having him as an addition to end of season ”, after his suspension.
Brown’s pending suspension from the NFL, which has been speculated by several experts, including Fowler, as “long,” only further muddies the waters for his return. Before Brown was cut by the Patriots, the league was considering placing him on the commissioner’s exempt list, making him ineligible to play. If a team signs him in the near future, that list is undoubtedly where he would land initially. However, the NFL will most likely wait for its legal proceedings to take place and then issue a suspension accordingly. (When commissioner Roger Goodell was asked, he only previously said the league investigation is ongoing.)
Without a dictated suspension until after the legal process has been developed, Brown, the Seahawks, and the rest of the NFL will continue to wait. In mid-July, Brown’s civil lawsuit case for an alleged rape was headed for mediation with no end date in sight, and is only further complicated by the growing COVID-19 cases in Florida, where he is filing the civil lawsuit.
Brown’s ongoing legal issues underscore that not only is the wideout not to be reckoned with in the present, but its availability in the future is completely unknown. (Further complicating that aspect is Brown’s apparent retirement announcement on Twitter on Monday, the third of its kind since last fall.)
An alternative, in case Seattle is determined to add a wide receiver, would be Josh Gordon. Despite his suspension in December, Gordon has remained in the training area and would reportedly be eager to join the Seahawks. A decision on his reinstatement could come as early as this week and, by signing, he would only face a two-game suspension. Reliability, availability and cost weigh Gordon in comparing the two receivers as options for Seattle.
Ultimately, it’s clear that the Seahawks would be interested in adding Brown, if the situation were correct. However, it is also clear that, despite the mutual interest between the two sides, it seems unlikely that Brown’s return to the NFL will occur in Seattle, if there is anywhere.
