Antonio Brown Comments on Steelers Offense with Michael Vick at QB

As his fantasy owners will tell you, Antonio Brown's production has dropped off significantly since Michael Vick took over at quarterback for the injured Ben Roethlisberger. 

In two games with Vick under center, Brown has underwhelmed relative to his lofty standards. Against the Baltimore Ravens, he caught just five passes for 42 yards, which snapped his streak of 35 straight regular-season games with at least five catches for 50 yards. 

Then in the Pittsburgh Steelers' last-second win over the San Diego Chargers on Monday night, Brown was limited to three catches for 45 yards.

Now he's letting Vick know how he feels about his statistical dip.     

"He’s got to take some shots," Brown told reporters Wednesday, per ESPN.com's Jeremy Fowler. "I told him, trust me a little bit. Let me make some plays. Let’s get a victory. It doesn’t have to be that hard."

Brown topped 100 yards receiving in each of the season's first three games, including a 195-yard effort in Week 2 against the San Francisco 49ers. Additionally, Brown was targeted at least 11 times every week before Vick started. 

Since then, he's been targeted a grand total of 15 times and has failed to catch a touchdown. 

According to Fowler, Vick recognizes the need to try to get the ball in the hands of the team's most lethal open-field playmaker: 

"It’s very important. I’m still working on that," the 35-year-old QB said. "This week we said we’re not going to put an emphasis on it. We’re just going to let everything happen naturally, go out there and play to win, that’s the most important thing. ... Trust me, those plays are going to come."

To Vick's credit, he did try to find Brown for a deep touchdown pass in Week 4 against the Ravens, but the ball slipped through his receiver's hands, as NFL Network documented: 

However, those shots have been few and far between. And unfortunately for Brown and Vick, they may continue to be this week against a talented Arizona Cardinals secondary that's allowing just 235.2 passing yards per game.

If there's a silver lining for Pittsburgh, it's that Arizona has allowed 16 passing plays of at least 20 yards and five in excess of 40 yards, per NFL.com, so Vick's big arm could threaten to strike—just as it did Monday night on a 72-yard touchdown connection with Markus Wheaton against the Chargers. 

Roethlisberger also reportedly threw passes in shorts at practice Wednesday, per the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's Ed Bouchette, so relief could be on the way sooner than expected for Brown.