The seemingly-inevitable happened early Saturday morning, when the Oakland Raiders granted mercurial wide receiver Antonio Brown his wish and released him from the team. The move followed weeks of back-and-forth clashes with team executives, grievances over fines and helmets, social media tirades, and questions of Brown’s availability after a freak accident while receiving cryotherapy treatment. We’ve come a long way since Brown was traded away from the Pittsburgh Steelers.

How do the New Orleans Saints factor in? They were reportedly engaged with trade talks for Brown when the Steelers were shopping him earlier this year; NFL Network’s Mike Silver prompted fans to “keep an eye on the Saints” back in March, but ESPN’s Dianna Russini reported that the Saints and Tennessee Titans bowed out of negotiations a week later. Larry Holder of The Athletic suggested the resources spent to acquire Brown in a trade (draft picks) and pay him (salary cap space) were as much of turn-offs as potential locker room volatility. Nick Underhill of The Athletic later added that the Saints’ interest in Brown was “close to zero” even before his fallout with the Raiders.

Now, however, it won’t cost the Saints much at all to add Brown to the squad. He’s an unrestricted free agent, so they don’t have to give up draft assets. And he has no leverage to bargain with in contract talks after burning bridges with Oakland and Pittsburgh. If the Saints think their locker room is strong enough to rein in his social media antics and outbursts, they could very well roll the dice and bring him in.

From a football perspective, it’s an easy call to pick up a perennial All-Pro talent who scores double-digit touchdown catches with ease. The Saints don’t have anyone they can point to with confidence as the clear sidekick to Michael Thomas at wide receiver.

But there’s the rub: Brown has gotten himself kicked off of two different squads by losing focus of his job. Despite pleas from Raiders head coach Jon Gruden to “pleas stop this (expletive) and just play football,” Brown may have violated a California state law by recording that private phone call and sharing it in a self-produced hype video. He can’t get out of his own way, costing himself $30 million between his various self-inflicted crises.

Considering the Saints’ goal of rallying together after two painful playoffs exits to win a Super Bowl title this year, locker room solidarity may be their largest concern with any new additions. That’s to say nothing of their limited spending room beneath the salary cap. They should stay away from Brown and the circus he’s determined to build around him.

But on some level, Saints head coach Sean Payton has to be thinking about where Brown would line up in his offense. The temptation is there, even if they ultimately never act on it.