The people spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity on Friday because the decision has not been announced.

Brown has been accused of rape and sexual assault in a civil case in Florida. He won’t go on the commissioner’s exempt list because no criminal charges have been filed. Brown has denied the allegations by his former trainer.

Players on the commissioner’s exempt list can’t play in games or practice with a team, but are still paid. The Patriots play at Miami on Sunday.

The wide receiver was acquired in a trade with Oakland this month after requesting and receiving his release from the Raiders.

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A dozen years after Bill Belichick took a chance on Moss when the talented but troubled receiver had worn out his welcome in Oakland, the Patriots picked up Brown on Saturday hours after he was released by the Raiders without ever playing a game for them.

Brown’s agent, Drew Rosenhaus, confirmed to The Associated Press that the four-time All-Pro has agreed to terms with New England, going from the NFL’s cellar to the defending Super Bowl champions despite wearing out his welcome with two teams in one offseason.

Brown had been scheduled to earn up to $50 million from Oakland over the three-year deal. Instead, the Patriots guaranteed him $9 million this season, with the potential to earn as much as $15 million.

A Patriots spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The deal was first reported by ESPN, and it became Instagram official minutes later when Brown posted a picture of himself in a Patriots uniform . The post was soon liked by New England receiver Julian Edelman, who already was splitting quarterback Tom Brady’s attention with one troublemaking receiver, Josh Gordon.

But Belichick has a history of gambling on other teams’ problems – or at least bringing them in at little cost – to give them a second, third or fourth chance.

In 2007, the Patriots acquired Moss after both Minnesota and Oakland tired of his attitude. He caught an NFL-record 23 touchdown passes in his first season and gave New England three straight seasons of 1,000 receiving yards to rehabilitate a career that landed him in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Belichick also took a chance in 2004 on running back Corey Dillon, who had fallen out of favor in Cincinnati; he ran for 1,635 yards and helped New England win its third Super Bowl in four seasons. (Some other moves, like Albert Haynesworth, didn’t work out.)

Gordon dragged Cleveland through a series of suspensions before the Browns traded him to the Patriots last September. Belichick was rewarded with 40 catches for 720 yards and three touchdowns before Gordon was suspended Dec. 20 for violating the league’s drug policy.

New England opens the season against the Steelers on Sunday night, when the Patriots will raise their sixth Super Bowl championship banner. Brown is not eligible to be officially signed until Monday, but even his presence on the Patriots’ sideline adds a new wrinkle to his tumultuous tenure in Pittsburgh.

A four-time All-Pro who caught 837 passes over nine seasons with the Steelers, the team tired of Brown’s antics and traded him to Oakland in March. But he never made it onto the field in a Raiders uniform.

Instead of providing them with a marquee star in their final season in Oakland before moving to Las Vegas, Brown gave them months of headaches, from a bizarre foot injury to a fight over his helmet to the blowups this week that ended his career there before it began.

The Raiders granted the disgruntled but talented receiver his Saturday morning, two days before their season opener.

”We just exhausted everything,” coach Jon Gruden. ”We tried every way possible to make it work. All I’m going to say is, it’s disappointing.”

Brown asked for the release after he was upset about his latest team fine over an outburst during practice at general manager Mike Mayock. That fine allowed the Raiders to void more than $29 million in guarantees over the next two years in Brown’s contract if he wasn’t on the team.

The Raiders traded two mid-round draft picks to Pittsburgh for the game’s most prolific receiver and gave him a three-year contract worth $50.1 million that now is void; Brown could still file a grievance to recover the guaranteed money.

The moves on Saturday follow a week in which Brown posted a letter on social media detailing $54,000 in fines for missing team activities. (ESPN reported that he would be fined $215,073 for conduct detrimental to the team.)

Brown was banished for one day, then returned to the team and apologized in a meeting and in a brief public statement. Gruden said the plan was for Brown to play in the opener Monday night against Denver, but that changed after Brown requested and was granted his release.

”It’s been crazy,” Oakland receiver Tyrell Williams said. ”We feel how everybody else feels. It’s been wild, it’s been crazy, it’s been unexpected. But we’re going to go out there and play regardless. He made that decision. We’re going to go out there and play how we’re going to play.”

The Raiders had been counting on Brown to spark an offense that lacked playmakers a year ago. Brown had 686 catches and 9,145 yards receiving the past six seasons in Pittsburgh, the best marks ever for a receiver in a six-year span.

But now they must move on without him.

”It’s been an emotional thing for me,” Gruden said. ”I was very hopeful about what he could bring here. Unfortunately, it’s not going to happen. He’s a good guy. He’s misunderstood by a lot of people but he’s a good guy, a great player and I hope he gets what he’s looking for.”

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AP Sports Writer Jimmy Golen in Boston contributed to this report.

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When December rolls around, the Steelers traditionally heat up.

”The goal is to continue to get hot,” Brown said. ”We know what’s at stake. We know what’s expected of us. And we want to finish strong.”

Following a four-game swoon, the Steelers (7-5) are on a roll in having won three straight to move into a tie with Baltimore atop the AFC North in preparing to travel to play the Buffalo Bills (6-6) on Sunday.

This is no time for a letdown, especially after an efficient 24-14 win over the New York Giants .

”You know how important these games are for us in terms of positioning,” coach Mike Tomlin said. ”Like we talked about openly last week, December football: Getting into that mentality and understanding what December football is like.”

Since 2000, the Steelers have combined to go 46-18 over their final four games of a season. And they’ve only twice had two or fewer wins over the season’s final quarter, going 1-3 in both 2012 and 2007.

That’s not been the case in Buffalo, where the Bills’ inability to produce a finishing kick has been a contributing factor to their 16-season playoff drought, the NFL’s longest active streak.

Since 2000, the Bills are a combined 25-39 in the season’s final quarter, and have won more than two of their final four games once. That happened in 2004 when Buffalo was on a 6-0 roll before being eliminated from contention with a season-ending home loss to a Steelers team that rested its starters after having already secured its playoff spot.

”This experience right here could be the start of something new,” Bills linebacker Lorenzo Alexander said. ”That’s what we’re trying to do, is to take seize of it right now, this opportunity that we have.”

The Bills have left little margin for error in having to win out and get help from other teams to have a shot at the postseason.

They must also rebound from a dreadful collapse at Oakland, where Buffalo squandered a 15-point third-quarter lead in a 38-24 loss .

TESTY TAYLOR: Bills quarterback Tyrod Taylor isn’t taking kindly to criticism.

“I’m done talking,” the second-year starter tersely said shortly after ending his 10-minute weekly news conference during which he faced numerous questions regarding his inconsistent play. Taylor is overseeing the NFL’s worst-ranked passing attack which, in his defense, has been depleted by injuries.

What’s concerning is how little impact Taylor has had influencing wins. His numbers are similar whether the Bills win or lose.

In six wins, he has 1,000 yards passing and eight touchdowns (including two rushing). In six losses, he has 1,292 yards passing and nine touchdowns (four rushing).

The big difference is the Bills’ NFL-leading rushing attack has 424 more yards in its six wins than losses.

SHADY vs. JUICE: Two of the NFL’s most dynamic running backs are squaring off. Buffalo’s LeSean McCoy leads the NFL in averaging 5.5 yards per carry, while Pittsburgh’s Le’Veon Bell is averaging 145 yards from scrimmage since missing the first three games because of an NFL suspension.

”That’s a bad man right there,” McCoy said of Bell.

McCoy is no slouch, having already topped 100 yards rushing five times and 100 yards from scrimmage in seven times.

WINTER WONDERLAND: Snow’s in the forecast this weekend, and that’s fine for Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger.

”It’s fun to play in the snow,” said Roethlisberger, who recalled growing up watching Bills Hall of Famer Jim Kelly competing in the frosty elements. ”I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.”

SEEKING SACK HELP: The Bills are coming off their first game of the season without a sack. And cornerback Nickell Robey-Coleman knows it’s never easy hauling down Roethlisberger, who’s been sacked just 16 times this season.

Roethlisberger’s 6-foot-5, 240-pound frame is particularly daunting for the 5-foot-8, 165-pound Robey-Coleman.

”I’m going to let you know right now, I’m not big enough to bring him down,” he said with a laugh. ”I’m going to need the cavalry to come and help me out a little bit. I might be able to probably pull down his shoulder sleeve, but that’s about it.”

TURNING THE CORNER: Pittsburgh’s rejuvenated secondary held the Giants in check last week thanks in part to cornerback Ross Cockrell . Drafted by Buffalo in 2014, he was cut loose in the 2015 preseason and picked up by Pittsburgh.

Bills coach Rex Ryan isn’t surprised by Cockrell’s success.

”I get the brilliant idea that maybe we should stash him on the practice squad,” Ryan said. ”As soon as we did that, guess what? I thought no one had tape on him. Unfortunately for us, Pittsburgh picked him up.”

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AP Sports Writer Will Graves in Pittsburgh contributed to this report.

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For the Pittsburgh Steelers’ offense to snap out of its midseason malaise, the All-Pro wide receiver needs help. While Brown is in the midst of another 100-catch season, no other Pittsburgh wideout is on pace for more than 40. During last Sunday’s loss in Baltimore, Brown was the only Pittsburgh receiver with a reception until early in the fourth quarter.

”Darrius Heyward-Bey, Sammie Coates and Cobi Hamilton, I think, collectively had zero catches,” coach Mike Tomlin said. ”You have to balance it out. You can’t allow people to do some of the things that they’ve been able to do against Antonio without repercussions. When we’re functioning well, it’s because those potential other guys, like I’m talking about, are producing plays.”

That was something that happened with regularity over the season’s first five weeks. The Steelers raced to a 4-1 record and alleviated concerns they would struggle to find a complement to Brown with talented but mercurial Martavis Bryant serving a one-year suspension for violating the league’s substance abuse policy.

Then the injuries and the losses started piling up. Slot guy Eli Rogers went down with a turf toe in Week 3, then was briefly benched when he returned for reasons coach Mike Tomlin declined to elaborate on. The best day of Coates’ brief career – six grabs for 139 yards and two scores in a romp over the Jets in Week 5 – also coincided with a laceration between the index and middle fingers of his left hand. Suddenly, his hot start was a memory.

Heyward-Bey darted 60 yards to the end zone on an end-around against Miami, and made a beautiful toe-tapping touchdown in New England, only to sprain his foot in Baltimore. Markus Wheaton entered the season as a starter, but a sprained shoulder that has lingered for the better part of two months has made him a nonfactor.

While running back Le’Veon Bell may be the best run/catch dual threat in the league, he’s more safety valve than sprinter.

”If you can contain 84 (Brown) and 7 (Roethlisberger) then everything else will fall in its place,” said Ravens defensive tackle Timmy Jernigan, a game plan sure to be copied by the Dallas Cowboys (7-1) this weekend – and everyone else the Steelers might play until they sort things out.

Rogers appears on the verge of getting back to the form he flashed in Week 1, pulling in six balls – all in the fourth quarter – against Baltimore. Tight end Ladarius Green, signed in March to become the downfield threat Heath Miller was not, is nearing his return from the physically unable to perform list. Coates is playing even as the finger heals, though he’s been a decoy more than anything and dropped a pass in the end zone in the fourth quarter against Baltimore that forced the Steelers to eat up more time as they tried to put together a rally.

Pittsburgh (4-4) doesn’t need someone to out-Brown Brown. But the Steelers are well aware they need to get production elsewhere when Brown is bottled up.

”It might not be a high-volume number of plays, but it’s significant plays,” Tomlin said. ”Whether it’s a significant possession down, whether it’s a field-flipping play, whether it’s a touchdown.”

Anything to give Brown even the tiniest sliver of freedom.

”If teams are going to try to take the underneath stuff away, you have to hit the deep stuff,” Roethlisberger said. ”And when they take the deep stuff away, you have to hit the underneath stuff. It’s taking what the defense gives you. You just need to continue to grow in all areas of our offense, whether that’s short or deep, or inside or out.”

And if the players are unsure about how to get there, Roethlisberger has a bit of advice. This isn’t the first time in his 13-year career the Steelers have reached the midpoint a bit of a mess. There’s time to clean it up if everyone chips in.

”Follow me,” Roethlisberger said. ”Guys who have been here who know, no time or reason to panic.”

NOTES: C Maurkice Pouncey (thumb), RB DeAngelo Williams (knee) and S Jordan Dangerfield (groin) did not practice Wednesday. … LB Bud Dupree practiced Wednesday, testing the groin injury that forced the team to put him on the injured reserve list in September.

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