Tennessee Titans 2019 quarter-season awards: Who’s the MVP?
Most Valuable Player: A.J. Brown
The standout rookie from Ole Miss has garnered two awards for the Titans through the first quarter of the season. One of the reasons, of course, is the fact that he’s the receiving yards leader on a team that has desperately needed more from its receiving corps.
But more importantly, Brown has been the spark to get the Titans’ offense going in two different games this season, both of which were wins.
Brown got the Titans’ offense off the ground in Week 1 with his huge 47-yard grab that setup a field goal, and his second half catch-and-run for 51 yards helped the Titans take a two-score lead at the start of the second half.
In Week 4, Brown once again got the Titans going on offense after catching a pass over the middle from Mariota, which he ended up cutting back and busting for a 55-yard touchdown play that got the Titans off to an uncharacteristically good start. As if that wasn’t enough, Brown later showed his body control with a sweet toe drag on a fade pass from Mariota for his second score.
Brown is providing the kind of explosiveness the Titans have always missed in years past. He is the recipient of three of Mariota’s five pass plays over 40 yards, which is the same amount Mariota had all of last season. Two of those plays were strictly the result of individual effort on the part of Brown, by the way.
Honorable mention: Marcus Mariota
I admittedly struggled quite a bit with my MVP choice, but in the end Brown’s ability to create big plays by himself that have helped the Titans win two games was just too much to overlook. This is certainly no knock on Mariota, though, as only a truly special effort by a talented rookie wideout could beat the Titans QB out for this award.
Barring a legendary showing from Brown in these next 12 games, if Mariota can keep up at his current pace, he’ll win this Titans award easily in 2019.
Honorable mention No. 2: Titans defense
It would be a shame if we went an entire awards article and didn’t mention the Titans defense. These men have been sensational, to the tune of 15.5 points allowed per game, the fourth-fewest in the NFL. I know it isn’t just one player getting it done, but all of these defenders deserve at least some recognition for how well they’ve played this season.