The Antonio Brown sweepstakes have begun after he recently met with owner Art Rooney and mutually agreed to part ways with the franchise after drama in the locker with Brown and Ben Roethlisberger. Brown thought Roethlisberger had to much authority in the locker room. In the Steelers week 17 must win game against the Cincinnati Bengals, Brown decided to sit out of the game, even though they still won they failed to make the playoffs.

Trading Brown, who’s finished with at least 1,200 receiving yards in each of the past six years, makes zero football sense from a financial perspective. If he were to be dealt before March 17 (when a $2.5 million roster bonus is scheduled to kick in), he’d cost the team $21.1 million in dead money this season. Considering that his cap hit for 2019 is set to be $22.2 million, that means Pittsburgh would get almost no financial relief if it ends up making a trade. The Steelers would essentially pay their best player more than $20 million to just not be on the team. That cap hit could be softened by a large number of draft capital acquired by the highest bidder for Brown.

Purely on a football basis, the asking price for Brown should begin at a first-round pick. The Cowboys dealt a 2019 first-rounder to the Raiders in October to acquire wide receiver Amari Cooper, and even as a younger player on a more favorable deal, Cooper doesn’t carry the same value as Brown. Unfortunately for the Steelers, there are plenty of complicating factors. Brown’s spat with his team, his role in a domestic dispute, his beef with quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, and his increasingly baffling social media antics have diminished his trade value and limited Pittsburgh’s leverage. The Steelers may ask for a first-round pick in any Brown trade, but might not get the response they want.

Last week, we found that three teams had contacted the Steelers about Antonio Brown and that the Steelers were fine with holding onto Brown if adequate compensation wasn’t supplied. ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler reports that the Steelers are also now looking to get Brown out of the AFC and place him with an NFC team.

Where will the All Pro WR play in 2019?