Winners and losers for Tennessee Titans, New England Patriots joint practice

Winner: A.J. Brown

Brown wasn’t an afterthought last week, but he certainly was someone that I had put on the back burner or in a holding pattern until he came back.

Based on how Mike Vrabel has treated injuries, I thought we would see a path similar to what is going on with Jurrell Casey: come back from injury, take a day off, come back, and shorten the wait period between practices until you are back full time.

That really wasn’t what happened at all. Brown instantly came in and ran drills, but then cut his practice short as he and Corey Davis rested. Then the next day he was in pads working with the first team on a few snaps in team.

I know the coaching staff is high on Brown, but that is a huge jump. For a rookie to instantly get reps with the starters after missing so much time must mean that he has been killing it with his playbook and acing all those mental tests.

So when he went out to the practice field and had a 60 yard catch from Ryan Tannehill (where he had to adjust to it by sliding) against the New England Patriots starters, that was the culmination of him doing so many other things right.

You hate to overvalue one play, but you love to see them and they earn you praise.