On June 1st, the Philadelphia Eagles finally traded away three-time Pro Bowl wide receiver and Super Bowl champion A.J. Brown to the New England Patriots, reuniting him with former Tennessee Titans head coach Mike Vrabel. This comes after months of speculation about Brown's relationship with the Eagles, as well as his fallout with quarterback Jalen Hurts.
Those in Nashville were probably experiencing some deja vu as this all transpired. The Titans infamously traded Brown to the Eagles during the 2022 NFL Draft, and have desperately been searching for a proper replacement ever since.
After the last several years of trying to patch the Brown-sized hole in the receiving room with veterans and late-round picks with untapped potential, the Titans finally got serious about the position and selected Ohio State wide receiver Carnell Tate fourth overall this past April.
So how does the Titans new hope at wide receiver compare to the one who once seemed destined to become the greatest wideout in franchise history? Let's hit the rewind button to see exactly how they stack up against each other as prospects.
Remembering A.J. Brown as a 2019 NFL Draft prospect
After posting a combined 160 catches for 2,572 yards and 17 touchdowns in his sophomore and junior seasons at Ole Miss, Brown would forgo his senior season and declare for the 2019 NFL Draft.
Like Tate, Brown also competed for targets in college with another legit NFL receiving prospect, as DK Metcalf's wild combination of size and athleticism became one of the talking points of the 2019 draft cycle. However, after Metcalf suffered a season-ending injury in October 2018, Brown was able to showcase his full abilities.
Because of Metcalf's injury, Brown started aligning both inside and outside, showing that he can play from anywhere in the formation. From the slot, Brown received an 80.9 grade and recorded 59 catches for 800 yards and five touchdowns while averaging 3.15 yards per route run, according to PFF. On the outside, Brown received a 70.2 PFF grade and logged 24 catches for 509 yards and a touchdown while averaging 2.88 yards per route run.
Brown was a natural athlete and explosive route runner. Like his teammate Metcalf, Brown's combination of size and athleticism also popped off plenty, as the 6-foot, 226-pound receiver ran a 4.49 40-yard dash at the NFL Combine and repeatedly made his physicality known by running through defenders.
Brown's calling card during the draft cycle that has followed him into his NFL career is his explosiveness and big-play threat ability. He forced 17 missed tackles during his final season at Ole Miss, which was fourth in his class. He also had 33 plays of 20-plus yards, ranking second in his class, only trailing UMass receiver Andy Isabella.
Brown's drawbacks included what you would expect from a receiving prospect with that kind of archetype. Scouts had concerns about how Brown would fair against other NFL caliber athletes, as his performance against LSU in 2018 was often referenced. Concerns were also expressed over Brown's slot usage in college and how his game would actually translate into the league.
Of course, Brown would go on to greatly surpass expectations. He instantly became the Titans' number-one receiver as a rookie, showing off a unique combination of size and athleticism that would foreshadow him becoming one of the league's top YAC threats, and one of the most physically dominant X-receivers in football. Through three seasons as a Titan, Brown recorded 2,995 yards and 24 touchdowns in 43 games while struggling with injuries.
However, it was those injuries that made then-GM Jon Robinson hesitant to pay Brown what many in the fanbase and organization felt he was worth. Brown's numbers and reputation around the league would explode after being traded to Philadelphia, making three second-team All Pros, two Pro Bowls, and helped the Eagles win Super Bowl LIX in 2025. Meanwhile, the Brown trade would kickstart a downward spiral inside for the Titans that the franchise is still trying to recover from.
Carnell Tate as a 2026 NFL Draft prospect
While being considered the Robin to super prospect Jeremiah Smith's Batman, Tate still earned the praise of talking heads and analysts throughout the draft process, with many considering him the best receiver in the class.
Tate's raw numbers of 51 catches for 875 yards and nine touchdowns during his junior year won't pop off the stat sheet, but he gets a pass from most due to playing next to the aforementioned Smith.
When actually analyzing Tate and Brown as draft prospects side-by-side, their profiles aren't as different as originally thought. Like Brown, Tate was highly praised throughout the process for his route running abilities and big play threat. He was described as a savvy route runner and proven downfield threat with impressive sideline awareness and body control.
Tate's calling-card for most of the process was his reliability, smooth route running and deep-threat ability. PFF tagged Tate with a 0.0% drop rate during his final season at Ohio State. He also had nine catches of 40-plus yards in 2025 and averaged 32.5 yards per touchdown catch, per Dane Brugler, proving that Tate is every bit of the consistent deep-threat he's been advertised as.
However, Tate's report wasn't completely clean. The presence of Jeremiah Smith does pose the question of if Tate would still produce if he didn't have Smith earning a lot of the attention from defenses. Long speed and YAC concerns also tended to pop up throughout the draft process for Tate. Concerns over his slender 6'2, 192 pound-build makes some people question his ability to carry an offense at the NFL level, as both Brugler and Lance Zierlein brought up all of these weaknesses in their final 2026 scouting reports.
While the hope seems to be that Tate can continue the recent trend of Ohio State receivers turning into NFL stars, many Titans fans just want him to provide some sort of stability in the receiving room and become a reliable and threatening target for second-year quarterback Cam Ward.
What should Titans fans expect from Carnell Tate in 2026?
It's expected that the Titans will give Tate an opportunity to be the legit number-one wide receiver right away, something he never had in the stacked Ohio State receiver room. New Titans offensive coordinator Brian Daboll has a history of peppering his team's number-one receiver with targets, such as former All-Pro Stefon Diggs in 2021 when Daboll was the Bills' offensive coordinator, and young New York Giants star Malik Nabers in 2024, when Daboll was the head coach and offensive play caller.
Tate should immediately slide into that role in Tennessee and give both Daboll and Ward a reliable and legitimately threatening weapon. Hopefully, the Ward-Tate combination can be a staple for the offense for years to come, and the shadow casted by the A.J. Brown trade can finally go away.
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