Can Oakland Raiders actually cut Antonio Brown?

The Oakland Raiders are reportedly suspending star receiver Antonio Brown after another bonehead mistake. Can they actually cut their losses, and what would it cost?

The Oakland Raiders made a huge splash this offseason when they traded for star receiver Antonio Brown. They gave up a 3rd and a 5th-round draft pick to get him, and immediately signed him to a new contract. It looked like a slam dunk of a move for a franchise which needed stars for their move to Las Vegas.

Then, one of the weirdest offseasons tied to one player commenced. And it’s not over.

Adam Schefter of ESPN tweeted that Brown and Raiders GM Mike Mayock got into it over an Instagram post where Brown talked about how much his team fined him for sitting out in the preseason. Say what you will about the NFL’s system of fining its players, putting it on social media was never going to go well. Now, reportedly he’s going to be suspended.

This is after Brown sat out of part of the preseason because he didn’t like his helmet. This is also after he got severe frostbite on his foot during a cryogenics session. Brown has been one headache after another for the Raiders.

If this headache becomes more than it’s worth for Mayock and the Raiders, could they actually cut Brown?

They actually could if they really wanted to. According to Over The Cap, the Raiders have $16 million in cap space going into the season with Brown’s $14 million cap hit. If they cut him today, hit cap hit immediately jumps to $30 million this season. That’s a huge price to pay for a player who isn’t on your team, but is he going to derail the whole offseason, and what is it worth to get rid of that?

Not only would he cost $30 million this season, but he would cost $15 million next season. That’s just a cap savings of a little over $2 million.

But wait, there’s more. Schefter tweeted that the Raiders hope this suspension helps them VOID the guaranteed money left in his contract. And Mike Tannenbaum reports that, assuming normal contract language, if the Raiders do suspend him and Brown isn’t on the roster on Opening Day. Not only that, they could try to take back their $1 million signing bonus.

That’s an unprecedented move that we can’t see the NFL Players’ Union taking too kindly to. This shows that guaranteed money is much less guaranteed than we previously thought. Well, obviously if they are able to void those guarantees with this suspension, he’s getting cut today.

So, to answer the question, the Raiders could cut Brown after months worth of shenanigans if they absolutely had to. They basically kept the exact amount of cap space to make such a move even if they can’t void any of the guarantees. If they can’t, we don’t expect them to make that move, but the nuclear option is there if the Raiders just can’t deal with this any more.