Antonio Brown was back on the practice field for the Steelers Monday at the Rooney Sports Complex for the first time in nearly a month, and while he wasn’t ready to declare himself 100 percent ready to go for the playoffs, things are certainly trending in the right direction.
“We’ll see. You have to stay tuned,” Brown said. “I am not trying to measure things and give you guys a synopsis of how I’ll be. If I am out there, I am going to give the team my all. I am going to be who I am, be my best self and give the team my best foot forward. I have to continue to get better. Preparation is everything. I have to keep the week going positive. It’s the playoffs. You have to do whatever it takes.”
It is the playoffs, and the Steelers now know they will face the Jacksonville Jaguars Sunday after having a bye last week. Brown did not play in the team’s final two regular season games after suffering a calf injury that Mike Tomlin said was a severe contusion in the second quarter of a Dec. 17 loss to the New England Patriots.
But Brown posted video over the weekend of workouts he completed with former NFL receiver Chad Johnson in Miami and then went through a full practice Monday as the Steelers began their preparations to play Jacksonville.
“He looked like 84,” said cornerback Coty Sensabaugh, who was tasked with covering Brown at times. “That’s just him. He’s a guy, I saw it in the Cincinnati week, I don’t think he practiced all week and he went out there and looked like himself. I’m sure there’s some rust that only he notices because he knows what he does best and exactly how he does things, but from my perspective, he looked like 84 to me, besides having some tape on his leg.”
The game to which Sensabaugh referred was the Steelers’ 23-20 win at Cincinnati Dec. 4. Brown did not practice at all during the week leading up to that game and didn’t look great in warmups, as well. But once the whistle was blown for the opening kickoff, he looked like himself, catching eight passes for 101 yards and one touchdown.
“AB is nice,” said cornerback Joe Haden, who lined up against Brown in his previous seven seasons as a member of the Browns. “If he’s out there, I expect him to be AB. He’s not going to be out there just stepping around. You never know how it’s going to feel afterwards. But while he was out there (Monday), he looked like AB.”
That’s good news for the Steelers, who will need all of their offensive weapons against the Jaguars, who led the NFL in pass defense this season, finishing second overall.
Brown had 10 catches for 159 yards when the two teams met Oct. 8 at Heinz Field but took 19 targets to do so in Pittsburgh’s 30-9 loss.
Getting back for this game has been the thing that drove him. At the time of his injury, he led the NFL in receptions with 101 and yardage with 1,533, while ranking second with nine touchdowns. Even though he missed the final two games of the regular season, he still led the NFL in receiving yardage.
“It was adversity,” said Brown of missing the final two games. “You play this game long enough, you are going to have adversity. It sucked. I didn’t want to get injured. It’s hard trying to fight back and get on your feet. It’s part of the process. Those are things you have to grow from.
“I am grateful to be in the situation we are in. Being injured is not fun. Especially not knowing. I am grateful to be here today. I never count myself out, regardless of circumstances. I know playing football, you are going to have to have adversity and have to grow from it.”
With Brown out of the lineup in the final two games, the Steelers’ offense grew. Rookie JuJu Smith-Schuster caught 15 passes for 218 yards and two touchdowns in the final two games without Brown, while Martavis Bryant had nine receptions for 125 yards.
And that was despite Landry Jones playing the regular-season finale with Ben Roethlisberger sitting out a 28-24 win over Cleveland.
“I think the young guys did a great job stepping up and making plays,” Brown said. “Buying some time with the victory with the bye week. Those guys have been dynamic putting points on the board and coming through for the team.”
Now, with Brown back and everyone on their offense healthy, the Steelers feel like they can roll into the postseason firing on all cylinders.
Assuming, that is, that Brown doesn’t have some kind of a setback.
“It went pretty smooth,” Brown said of practice Monday. “I am excited to be out there with the guys. I am grateful to be on my feet. There is still a lot to test. It’s the first day of the week. There is a lot of room to grow and improve. We’ll see how it goes, how we progress. I feel I was able to get through practice. I still have to get a little better, but it felt good to be out there. I was able to move around a little bit, get in the flow of things. I still have plenty of room to grow.”
