Could the Baltimore Ravens take on Antonio Brown?

Antonio Brown is a bit unruly and his future in the NFL looks bleak, but if a team did decide to take a chance on him could it be the Baltimore Ravens?

There was a time not so long ago that Antonio Brown was hailed as perhaps the best wide receiver in all of football. Brown had one of the greatest stretches of any wide receiver in NFL history from 2013-2018. In that timeframe, Brown hauled in 686 receptions for 9,145-yards and 67 touchdowns. Brown is one of just two receivers to accumulate over 5,000-yards receiving in a three-year span (2013-2015), alongside Calvin Johnson. Brown was the king of the wide receiver world before it all came crashing down.

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By now we all know the story of Antonio Brown’s career’s demise, so I won’t waste any time there. However, the soon to be 32-year old receiver is hoping to turn a new leaf and get another chance to play. He’s certainly still young enough to have some gas left in the tank and no one will dare deny his talent. The real question is whether or not he’s mentally stable enough to play the game of football and not let in too many distractions.

If Brown does check out, are the Baltimore Ravens a good fit?

There are some easy dots to connect between Antonio Brown and the Ravens, most notably that his cousin, Marquise Brown, is Baltimore’s top-guy at the position. There’s reason to believe that Marquise could reach out and support Antonio in a way that other teams and players have been unable to do. Perhaps family ties are exactly what Antonio Brown needs to get back on track.

If Brown is back and has his head on straight, the Ravens offense will be pretty difficult to stop. Both Antonio and Marquise Brown give Baltimore two explosive playmakers that can lineup all throughout the formation while having solid depth at receiver in guys like Willie Snead and Miles Boykin. Combine these receivers with Baltimore’s tight ends and running backs and Lamar Jackson has more talent than he knows what to do with.

Offensive coordinator Greg Roman just coached one of the NFL’s greatest offenses of all-time; giving him more talent to work with is almost unfair to the rest of the league.

There’s so much to like here between upside and the hope that the Ravens are the team to get Antonio Brown back on track, but is it enough to warrant that gamble? The NFL can take a fierce stance against certain players when they want to (see Kaepernick, Colin), but they are also pretty forgiving when it comes to off-field behaviors like Brown’s track record.

Antonio Brown has certainly soured on me in the last year and a half, and I know I’m not alone in that regard. Brown has clearly shown to be far too immature and has too many distractions to be given another chance. This is a personal opinion, however, and I am not even close to having my opinions matter to professional NFL teams like the Baltimore Ravens. It seems unlikely given how much negativity Brown has surrounded himself with in such a short amount of time, but a team could be willing to overlook that for his talent. Baltimore is no exception.

It seems almost certain that Antonio Brown will get a second chance, but who will give it to his is the question on everybody’s mind. The Baltimore Ravens will be one of the most heavily linked teams to Brown, but there’s plenty of reason to believe they won’t gamble on the biggest headcase of the last decade. Still, it wouldn’t be too surprising if they believed in their team enough to take on someone like Brown.