Antonio Brown is back in Napa.
The Oakland Raiders receiver arrived at training camp for the first time in more than a week to rousing fanfare.
"I'm extremely grateful to be here," Brown said. "I'm dealing with a lot of adversity. It's on the up and up, so I'm excited to be back and see my teammates and get in the groove of things here shortly."
Brown was away from the Raiders while dealing with frostbitten feet from a cryogenic therapy chamber mishap and filing a grievance over wearing his old helmet. His grievance was denied on Monday.
"We're working with the NFL in regards to the helmet," Brown said. "I'll be making sure I put on the right equipment-approved helmet and be ready to go shortly."
Brown continues to deal with the foot issue and will remain out of practice, but said he's trending in the right direction.
"I feel a lot better. Working towards 100 percent," he said. "It's been a process with the feet. Anytime you know you got a lot of blisters, it's hard to change direction, cut and run and be able to do what I do naturally. I'm starting off on a good foot. I've been away getting a lot of work. I'm excited to just move forward."
There is no timetable for Brown's return to practice, but coach Jon Gruden has no worries the dynamic receiver will be ready to go Week 1, responding: "Oh yeah. Yep," when asked if A.B. would play in the season opener.
"We'll work him back in," Gruden said of practice. "Obviously it's great to have him back. We've had a pretty good understanding -- in spite of what people think -- of what's going to happen. Now we're ready to get rolling."
Brown's quarterback is also happy to see the game-changing target back at the facility.
"He's here now so we'll be ready to go Week 1," Derek Carr said. "We got a lot of time until then. Obviously, a short week this week playing a game on Thursday but with that said we have so much time to just get some game plan plays down, some routes, certain cuts that we're going to have him running and all of those kind of things, we have plenty of time. The fact that he's here is a good sign, that's good for us."
Brown was happy to have the support of his coach and quarterback through the wild ride of the past week or so.
"It was good to hear. I'm battling with a foot injury, I see my face all over the news, all the talk," Brown said. "But these guys are doing a good job with supporting me. Grateful to hear them come out about it and I'm excited to be here to just do my job."
When he's on the field, Brown is a field-tilting talent who can raise all boats. With his return to camp, the Raiders can now focus on preparing for the 2019 campaign, hopefully without further melodramatics from the star receiver.
