Antonio Brown trade: Derek Carr ready to work with new Raiders teammate

Tom Gatto

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Antonio Brown trade: Derek Carr ready to work with new Raiders teammate image

Derek Carr is already connecting with Antonio Brown.

The Raiders' No. 1 quarterback and the team's soon-to-be new No. 1 wide receiver exchanged tweets early Sunday after it was reported that Brown was headed to Oakland in a trade with the Steelers.

BENDER: Brown can avoid following the same late-career path as TO

Brown threw it back to when he and Carr were Pro Bowl teammates:

Carr replied that he was ready for a reunion:

Brown's soured relationship with Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger became a talking point during the receiver's public campaign to be traded. Brown said that Roethlisberger has too much power within the Pittsburgh organization.

"He feel like he the owner," Brown said on an episode of the LeBron James-produced "The Shop."

Steelers general manager Kevin Colbert endorsed Roethlisberger's outsize role when he told reporters that Big Ben "is unquestionably the leader of this team."

Carr has no such clout in Oakland. There has been heavy speculation about his future with the franchise following a 4-12 season in 2018. A solid working relationship with 84 could help keep Carr around through the Raiders' move to Las Vegas in 2020 or 2021.

Tom Gatto

Tom Gatto Photo

Tom Gatto joined The Sporting News as a senior editor in 2000 after 12 years at The Herald-News in Passaic, N.J., where he served in a variety of roles including sports editor, and a brief spell at APBNews.com in New York, where he worked as a syndication editor. He is a 1986 graduate of the University of South Carolina.