Short and simple, that answer is no. Is he pretty good and a solid #2? Yes. Antonio Brown is nothing to sneeze at, but he’s not a guy a team will change the game plan for. Brown might be the best receiver on the Steelers right now, but he’s arguably only the fourth best receiver in the division, behind Torrey Smith, A.J. Green and Josh Gordon.
In 2011, Brown benefited from teams being worried about Mike Wallace. Sure, drops and inconsistent play plagued Wallace, but he did have a career year in 2010 and got off to a monster start in 2011, going for over 100+ yards in the first three games. This in turn helped Antonio accomplish career highs in catches and yards (69 for 1108). Still, even with the extra attention that Wallace garnished, Antonio only managed to catch two touchdowns in a thousand yard season.
And yes, while Antonio Brown is on pace for a 1,648 yard and eight touchdown season, 196 of his 412 yards thus far came in one game vs. Chicago. And obviously, he’s not going to keep up this pace, especially since a familiar target in Heath Miller is now back to give Ben another option to throw to. I’m really not trying to sound like an Antonio Brown hater, as I’m not, but an elite receiver also cannot only be 5′ 10″. Sure, you can make the Desean Jackson argument all you want, but what have the Eagles won since he’s been on the team? Wes Welker, well yes, I’ll give you that, but you can’t run a corner fade, go up and get it route with someone of that size, you just can’t. You need a Megatron type build, or at least height in today’s NFL.
Antonio Brown also appears to not be the double threat he was returning kicks so far this season. But in reality, the Steelers shouldn’t use him this way if they can help it as they definitely can’t afford for him to get hurt now. Let’s just call what Antonio Brown what he is, a good player who was a 6th round steal. To put a #1/elite receiver tag on him just isn’t realistic.
