Sports Time Radio

I think everyone and anyone with any type of interest in the NFL made some kind of report when they found out that Antonio Brown was having a workout with the New Orleans Saints. Of course most if not all of them forgot to mention that there where seven other people involved in the same workout with Brown, but like I’ve said before; why let facts get in the way of a good story.

Now it’s no surprise that there are teams still interested in Brown. He’s a very talented wide receiver and I’m a little surprised that New Orleans is the first team to take a look at him.

Before anyone jumps to conclusions or starts to report that Brown will be in a Saints uniform tomorrow let’s consider the chances of him actually being signed.

Remember that Brown is still under investigation by the NFL for a domestic violence incident. I have a feeling that if he was signed by New Orleans he’d immediately be placed on the commissioners exempt list and wouldn’t play. You also have to figure that at the end of the NFL’s investigation Brown is going to be suspended.

I am interested to know why a team like the Saints who are locked into the playoffs and seem to have good chemistry would be interested in adding a player with Brown’s track record to their roster. All you have to do is follow how his season has went to question if how he’d be in a locker room. Let’s take a look.

Brown’s troubles started at the end of 2018 season while he was still with the Pittsburgh Steelers. For some reason Brown actually thought it would be a good idea to go live on social media from the Steelers locker room while head coach Mike Tomlin was giving his post game speech. As you can guess this move didn’t go over well. Then even though Brown racked up 104 catches and scored 15 touchdowns he seemed to have a problem with the emergence of Juju Smith-Schuster and then he ended up complaining about quarterback Ben Rothlisberger on social media. The Steelers decided it was time to move on from Brown and they ended up trading him to the Oakland Raiders for a 3rd and a 5th round pick in last years draft. Looking at the trade it might appear that Pittsburgh didn’t get enough in return for Brown, but in the end you can understand why this was the best deal they could get.

Brown’s time in Oakland was much maligned. He actually ended up never playing adown for the Raiders. Between the issues with his foot and then multiple complaints over which helmet he was going to have to wear and jut about anything else you can think of the Raiders actually ended up putting Brown on the non-football injury list and them taking him off of it two days later. The final straw between the Raiders and Brown seemed to be when the team fined him $40,000 for not participating in the teams walk through on August 22nd. Brown then went on to whine his way out of Oakland as the Raiders ended up releasing him.

Brown was then free to sign with any NFL team he wanted which is what most of the experts thought was what he wanted. Brown chose to sign with the New England Patriots. Brown didn’t play in Week 1 for New England, but did get onto the field in Week 2 against the Miami Dolphins. Brown was targeted 8 times and caught 4 of those passes. He had 56 yards on those 4 receptions and did score a touchdown. Not too bad for a guy who really had just about a week and a half of actual practice. Then the final shoe dropped on Brown as the Patriots released him on September 20th after Brown was accused of domestic violence.

There’s no doubt that Brown is a talented wide receiver, but there is also a lot of baggage that comes along with bringing him into your organization. Apparently just for his workout yesterday with the Saints he had a camera crew with him. With New Orleans heading into the playoffs; is it worth the gamble to sign Brown?

The Houston Texans are locked into the #4 seed in the AFC playoffs and it appears as though they’ll try to get their players some rest in the final week of the regular season against the Tennessee Titans.

While Houston is trying to find a way to keep their players healthy there is a chance that they’ll get their best defensive players back for that first round playoffs match up against the Buffalo Bills.

The Texans have officially designated defensive end J.J. Watt to return from the injured reserve list. Watt has been out injured since he suffered a torn pectoral muscle in Week 8, but this move opens the door for Watt to return in the playoffs.

With Watt returning to practice this opens up a 21 day window for him to be added to the active roster. Now Watt just underwent surgery on his pectoral muscle eight weeks ago and it typically requires three to four months to recover from pectoral surgery; so this is a quick turn around for Watt.

Now Watt has had his share of recovering from injuries faster than normal. Watt has already returned from two herniated disc surgeries and then also a tibial plateau operation. At the age of 30; this could be Watt’s toughest return yet.

Now Watt wasn’t putting up the gaudy sack stats the 8 games he played this season. Watt had 4 sacks this season, but Watt is double teamed 30% of the time which is more than any other defense end or edge rusher in the NFL. While Watt may not have been getting sacks he did have 21 credited quarterback hits in the 8 games he played; so even with the double team he’s still getting pressure on the quarterback.

Is it at all possible that just having Watt return is enough to help boost the Houston defense?

We’ve been off for the holidays, but the Sports Time Radio podcast is always available on BlogTalkRadio.com and TuneIn.com.

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