During the 2012 season multiple Pittsburgh Steelers played below their potential. One of the biggest culprits was wide receiver Antonio Brown, who saw a drop in every one of his statistical categories other than touchdowns compared to the 2011 season. Prior to the 2012 season Brown also signed five year extension worth $42.5 million so he was expected to become the leader of the receiving core with Mike Wallace expected to be gone after the season.
Late in the season Brown missed three games with an ankle injury. Even with those missed games Brown finished with only three fewer receptions compared to the 2011 season, but his yards per catch fell from 16.1 in 2011 to 11.9. That meant 321 fewer yards in 2012, but it isn’t his receptions, yards, and touchdowns that are the biggest issue from the 2012 season.
In 2012 Brown fumbled the ball three times and lost a fumble twice. Prior to last season Brown had not lost a fumble and had only fumbled the ball one time in 29 career games including the playoffs. However, in only 13 games during the 2012 season he put the ball on the ground three times and lost it twice. What’s worse is that both of those fumbles were momentum changers and may have been the difference between winning and losing games for the Steelers.
Brown’s first two fumbles came in week three against the Oakland Raiders. His first fumble came on a ten yard reception from Ben Roethlisberger. He lost the ball into the endzone, but recovered it for a touchdown to put the Steelers up 31-21 in the game. His second fumble came in the fourth quarter on a 20 yard pass that would have out the Steelers into Oakland territory only about 20 yards from field goal range. Instead the Raiders got on top of Brown’s fumble and drove for a game tying field goal. That game ended on a game winning field goal for the Raiders and the turning point could be determined as that fumble by Brown.
The third fumble of Brown’s 2012 season came against the Dallas Cowboys. The Steelers had just taken a 24-17 lead in the game and stopped the Cowboys to get the ball back. For all intents and purposes the momentum was fully on the side of the Steelers. However, on the ensuing punt Brown lost the handle on the ball and it was recovered by the Cowboys. Again the fumble came in the fourth quarter and it put the momentum on the other sideline. The Cowboys continued their drive thanks to Brown’s fumble and drove for a touchdown tying the game at 24-24. The Cowboys went on to beat the Steelers in overtime 27-24 and it would be easy to argue that Brown’s fumble was the difference in the game.
That’s two losses that could be attributed to Brown due to mental mistakes. Brown also dropped multiple passes during the 2012 season, not as many as Wallace, but enough that fans should not give him a pass on his poor 2012 season. Brown knows that he struggled in 2012 and he is already working to get better for the 2013 season. The Steelers need him to step up his game; especially with him now set to be the top receiver with Wallace leaving in free agency.
The biggest reason the Steelers need Brown to step up, however, is his future cap hits. Just about a week ago Brown restructured his contract to help save the Steelers some cap space. That restructure pushes money into the future and makes Brown’s future cap hits higher than they would have been. His next four cap hits are now set to be $8.47 million during the 2014 and 2015 season. That number will than jump to $10.72 million in 2016 and $9.48 million in 2017. Receivers making that much money are expected to be at the top of the league in stats and players that win games for their teams. Brown can be that guy, but he will need to avoid the mental mistakes that plagued his 2012 season.
2012 was not a good season for many Steelers players. Plenty of players had poor seasons and a good amount of the roster suffered injuries during last season. It could be argued that the team fell into some bad luck, but players like Brown need to step up their play in 2013 to help the Steelers get back on track. If they don’t it could be another long season for the Steelers next year.
