Antonio Brown’s brief 2019 season needs to be studied. Six months after a trade between the then-Oakland Raiders and the Pittsburgh Steelers to send Brown out west, the Raiders released him before Week 1 of that season.
A day before that, the Raiders stated that despite Brown’s cryptic social media posts and rumors of dissatisfaction, he would indeed play Week 1 against the Denver Broncos.
The timeline for all this is insane. Brown eventually asked for a release on social media at noon ET, the Raiders released him at 4:01 p.m. ET, and nearly an hour and a half later, at 5:19 p.m. ET, Brown signed a one-year deal with the New England Patriots.
He would dress one game as a Patriot against the Dolphins and show a dominant performance, then allegations of misconduct off the field caught up with Brown, and the Patriots would release him the following week.
It was indeed a roller coaster of an offseason that led into the early stages of the regular season. Nobody had a better front-row seat to it than Raiders head coach Jon Gruden at the time.
Gruden has been slowly easing his way back into the public with a TikTok presence and appearances on football-related podcasts. Today, he appeared on The Pacman Jones Show, where he spoke about Brown’s brief stint with the Raiders.
I think AB was at a point in his life where he was looking for something different than what we had to offer,” Gruden said. “That’s the most disappointing thing I’ve ever been a part of as a coach.”
See his whole response on the issue below.
Gruden would elaborate on the idea of Brown being “disappointing.” It was not his character that disappointed him; it’s the fact that Gruden had one of the best receivers of the last decade in his presence to play for him, and he couldn’t get him motivated to play for Week 1 as a Raider.
The former head coach of the Raiders seems bummed he never got to work with Brown. You can’t blame him.
Despite Brown’s off-the-field antics these last few years, many believe the wide receiver will be a surefire Hall of Famer someday. His career consisted of 928 catches for 12,291 yards and scored 88 touchdowns, along with 187 punt returns for 1,761 yards.
Who knows what would have happened if the pair had made it to the opening day of the 2019 season? Where would the Raiders franchise be right now? We’ll never know because it never even got close.
Brown never played an official NFL snap as an Oakland Raider.
