ESPN reporter Rich Cimini stirred up some buzz recently when he said the New York Jets would be “keeping an eye” on some big-name wide receivers nearing the end of their rookie deals that could become available for trade should contract extension talks not work out — and he named Tennessee Titans star wideout, A.J. Brown, as one of them.
Brown is in the final year of his rookie deal and while he and the Titans have yet to agree to a contract extension, preliminary talks have already begun, as general manager Jon Robinson stated earlier this month.
While down at the owner’s meetings this week, Robinson said the focus right now is to get through free agency, but that Tennessee intends to keep Brown in Nashville, per Jim Wyatt of Titans Online.
“Right now, we are just trying to get through this free agency period, seeing where we’ve landed cap-wise,” Robinson said. “A.J. is an important part of what we do. He’s a great teammate, he works hard, he’s about what we’re about. A.J. is a Titan and we want to keep A.J. a Titan. And that’s part of our goal this offseason, or whenever that manifests itself, to come to an agreement to keep him around.”
Robinson also noted that despite the fact that he regularly gets calls about players for trades, he has not gotten any about Brown. And if he does, inquiring teams will be turned away.
“We get calls about players all the time – that’s what GMs do,” Robinson said. “I haven’t received any of those calls (about A.J.), and if they do call, our intention is A.J., we are going to keep him in Nashville. He is an important part of our offense.”
Spotrac estimates Brown’s market value at a contract of four years for $69.2 million, which works out to $17.3 million annually.
That number might have gone up in recent weeks thanks to the contracts handed out to other receivers around the league like Tyreek Hill, Davante Adams, and even Christian Kirk.
A better estimate of what Brown will command is likely closer to $20 million per. That’s a big number, but it’s a price the Titans must pay if it means keeping their best playmaker not named Derrick Henry.
