Tennessee Titans WR A.J. Brown’s quietly outstanding rookie year
By Will Lomas
The Tennessee Titans have a fun receiver that we need to enjoy now.
It is easy to forget, but while everyone was fawning over the Jeffery Simmons (correctly) you might have missed another Tennessee Titans rookie having a big day.
That’s right, while A.J. Brown didn’t have a career day for touchdowns or yards, it was the first time that I really felt like he was a key part of the offense.
A big part of that is because he was targeted 8 times and ended up with 6 receptions, both of which were career highs. He also tied his career high in snaps with nearly 40, which goes to prove the point that he is getting more and more run in this offense.
The thing is, it isn’t just that Brown is doing well “for the Titans” look at this stat:
A.J. Brown leads AFC rookies with 337 yards receiving. He ranks 3rd among rookies with 20 receptions.
— Titans247 (@NFL_Titans247) October 23, 2019
That is a pretty big deal considering how little the Tennessee Titans pass and how little he has played relative to that production and relative to other teams being forced to play rookies more than they want to.
As much as it hurts Marcus Mariota fans, maybe everyone can at least agree that Ryan Tannehill being the starter is better for A.J. Brown. To quote Josh Norris of Rotoworld:
"Brown’s success this season has been built off big plays, usually constructed by individual effort. Sunday’s game against the Chargers did not feature any of those signature highlights… but perhaps that’s a good thing. With Marcus Mariota at quarterback, Brown averaged fewer than four targets per game and just over two receptions per contest. In one Ryan Tannehill start, the Titans fed Brown eight targets and six receptions. He should be seeing even more volume than that. Brown verges on a rare line of size, movement and vision."
I couldn’t have put it better myself. Brown finally feels like he is completely integrated into the offense and that there will be a lot less variance going forward.
In the Tennessee Titans era, the rookie leader for receiving yards is Kenny Britt in 2009 with 701. Despite the lack of volume that Brown saw early in his career, he is still on pace for 770 yards right now, which would shatter that rookie record.
If we see more of what we did against the L.A. Chargers, he could be the first Titans receiver to cross 1000 yards since Kendall Wright, and Corey Davis is only 20 yards behind him.