Highlighting Tennessee Titans rookie A.J. Brown’s season in 5 stats

Today, we WILL discuss how amazing Tennessee Titans rookie WR A.J. Brown has been.

It is rare that you see history unfold right in front of you, but weeks ago it became clear that Tennessee Titans rookie receiver A.J. Brown was going to break records.

At the time, I thought that the most realistic goal was to break the Tennessee Titans franchise record for yards or touchdowns but what we all got was even more impressive.

Before that, I am going to take a step back and explain what you are about to read.

The reason I wrote this is because I don’t want to just look at the most impressive thing that Brown did this season. Instead I want to start of with the incredible things that he did that will be overlooked and build to his historic achievements.

With that said, let’s take a quick look back at the season that the should-be Rookie of the Year had in 2019.

1. A.J. Brown rewrites the Tennessee Titans history book for rookies.

Since the Houston Oilers became the Tennessee Titans, only four other rookie wide receivers have topped 500 yards: Kenny Britt, Kendall Wright, Dorial Green-Beckham, and Tajae Sharpe.

Brown obliterated that total with his final number sitting at 1,051 yards, which is exactly 350 yards more than the new #2 on this list which is Kenny Britt a decade ago in 2009.

He also set the Titans rookie record for receiving TDs since the move with 8 receiving TDs. Again, the gap was so wide between Brown and second place that if you combined DGB and Kendall Wright’s totals (who were tied at 2nd with 4 each) they still only tie Brown’s TDs.

To say that he rewrote the record book is putting it mildly because he completely changed the standard by which all modern Titans receivers will be judged by.

2. Big play Brown

Total yards and touchdowns are a great indicator of what a player did in their season as a whole, but what about those splash plays that turn good players to game breakers?

Well, for that I want to point at Brown’s yards per target numbers. The metric is pretty simple, how many yards does the offense get on average every time the ball is thrown in your direction.

This punishes drops while rewarding big play ability and efficiency. So here is a list of Titans WRs with 10 receptions or more in a season who also have more than 10 yards per target.

1. A.J. Brown: 12.51 YPT

2. Kenny Britt (2011): 11.12 YPT

3. Yancey Thigpen  (2000): 11.12 YPT

4. Kenny Britt (2010): 10.62 YPT

5. Isaac Byrd (1999): 10.44 YPT

6. Derrick Mason (2000): 10.06 YPT

The distance between first and second place is bigger than the gap from second to sixth place. That is a clear example of a player being so much more explosive than anything we have ever seen before with higher highs, and fewer lows.

3. Instant draft envy

Tennessee Titans fans know, but it is forgotten that Jon Robinson was infatuated with A.J. Brown’s potential and had to hold himself back from trading up to land the phenom from Ole Miss.

Luckily, trusting in the incompetence of the rest of the NFL paid off and the Titans landed Brown with the 51st pick in the 2020 NFL Draft.

Not only did he fall to the second round, but three receivers were drafted in front of Brown: Hollywood Brown, N’Keal Harry and Deebo Samuel.

All of those players have been good when they have been on the field, but just how good has Brown been this year? Well here is a list of the other three WRs combined compared to Brown’s season.

Hollywood/Harry/Samuel: 115 receptions, 1,491 yards (13 yards per catch) and 12 receiving TDs (1 every 10 receptions)

A.J. Brown: 52 receptions, 1,051 yards (20.2 yards per catch) and 8 receiving TDs (1 every 6.5 receptions)

I don’t know if those stats accurately represents how impressive that is. Despite half the receptions of those three players he is nearly twice as productive per catch in yards and touchdowns.

It also probably needs to be said that in a draft class full of standout wide receivers, it is A.J. Brown who is the guy clearly at the top of the mountain. So it isn’t like these numbers are against no bodies or busts, he is just out performing good rookies consistently.

4. Randy Moss parallels

When you think of rookies who established themselves as dominant receivers early, there are a lot of names that run through your head. However, there are very few players that did that by completely gashing a defense with big plays while also being a consistent threat.

CBS Sports had a great stat that explained this yesterday.

That got me thinking, how else are he and Moss similar?

Well if you remember the yards per target stat, Brown (12.51) and Moss (10.59) are the leaders in that category among rookies season the stat was tracked by Pro Football Reference.

Since 1965 they are also the only receivers with 50+ receptions that also have 19+ yards per catch.

Basically, the only player in modern NFL history who compares to the explosion and big play ability of A.J. Brown is Randy Moss. It isn’t necessarily a one-to-one comparison of their play styles, but the result is the same.

5. A.J. Brown is the only player in NFL history to do this.

So we have gone on this quick journey that has taken us through his domination of the rookie record books for the Titans, his big play ability, why he was the steal of the draft, and why Randy Moss is the only modern comparison for Brown’s explosion.

Now I want to show you what Brown has done that no one in NFL history has ever done.

Despite being used poorly by this coaching staff early in the season and despite some people that sell themselves as draft experts saying that A.J. Brown wouldn’t even be active every game, Brown made enough of his limited chances early to earn the role that he eventually filled late.

If Brown had been used like this since Week 1, who knows where his final stats would have been. All we know is that his talent was so evident that after being relegated to specific packages early in his career, Brown came in and kicked the door down on his way to becoming the Titans WR1.

We just didn’t realize while it was happening that we were also watching history being made in front of our eyes.