AJ Brown would give up 11 jersey if Tennessee Titans trade for Julio Jones

There are a lot of reasons why it might not happen, but if the rumors are true and the Tennessee Titans trade for Julio Jones there might be a slight issue. Jones has worn the #11 jersey since entering the NFL in 2011, and he has a decade of history with that number. Meanwhile, Titans have a #11 of their own who is blazing a trail. His name is A.J. Brown.

The former Ole Miss star, Brown, has taken the NFL by storm. In two years, since he entered the NFL, he has already started trending towards elite status, just look at this tidbit.

Only four wide receivers in NFL history have 2,000-plus receiving yards and ten-plus yards per target. A.J. Brown is one of those four receivers. Randy Moss, Torry Holt, and Mike Wallace are the other three. Let’s talk a little about Julio Jones now.

Jones has racked up nearly 13,000 receiving yards, seven Pro Bowl nods, two All-Pro nods, and an election to the All-Decade Team for the 2010s. He is also one of a handful of players who have had at least 1,000 receiving yards in each of their first two seasons, and he did it in the fewest number of targets.

Generally, star players aren’t willing to just give up their numbers to new free agents, draft picks, or veterans that a team gets in a trade. For some teams, that might be a deal-breaker because you never want to make your young stars mad. Luckily for the Tennessee Titans, A.J. Brown has a lot of respect for Julio Jones and offered this tweet up without any prompting.

With that being said, if a deal is made, don’t expect there to be any posturing from A.J. Brown on who would once again endear himself to Tennessee Titans fans.

Here’s something else for Tennessee Titans fans to think about

Now, we could all exist in a world where Julio Jones goes back to his old college number (8) and A.J. Brown keeps the number 11 jersey out of mutual respect. For Brown, the possibility of taking his college number (the number 1 jersey) isn’t an option.

Fans of the Titans and Houston Oilers know the number 1 jersey was retired by the Titans in honor of Warren Moon. If you didn’t know, look no further than A.J. Brown’s Twitter account where he recently talked about why he wouldn’t wear #1 even if he was allowed to do so.

https://twitter.com/1kalwaysopen_/status/1384976883360673799

There is another option that might be a possibility though, and here it is.

During his first training camp, Brown was going to wear number 18 but changed it to the number 11 jersey. If a trade for Julio Jones does happen, the smart money, if you’re a betting man or woman would be on gambling that A.J. wears the number 18 or number 8 (again out of respect for Julio Jones, his idol). Those are probably the safest bets in terms of replacement numbers.