Last summer, A.J. Brown couldn’t help but notice some of the wide receivers around the league receiving handsome paydays.
At the time, the Tennessee Titans wide receiver led the team in receiving in each of his first three seasons, including back-to-back, 1,000-plus yard campaigns in his first two years.
With one year left on his contract, the team and the Ole Miss product were mutually interested in keeping the star receiver in Nashville long term.
While the reports being thrown out there suggested that the Titans and Brown wanted to work out a deal that would make the latter one of the highest-paid receivers in the league, ultimately, that never happened.
The two sides were unable to come to an agreement, and Titans general manager Job Robinson felt it was best for the two parties to go their separate ways.
As we know well enough by now, Brown was traded to the Philadelphia Eagles for the Nos. 18 and 101 overall picks in the 2022 NFL Draft.
“The decision we made today, it was a tough one,” Robinson said, via Jim Wyatt of TitansOnline.com. “We really appreciate what A.J. has done here for our football team, on the field and in the community. We had discussions back and forth and we realized we got to the point where it was going to be hard to get a deal done [to keep him]. So, the trade thing kind of manifested.”
It was undoubtedly a calculated risk, but the Titans used the Eagles’ first-round pick to take Arkansas wide receiver Treylon Burks.
Prior to the trade, Robinson acquired Robert Woods from the Los Angeles Rams, which, at the time, proved to be a pivotal move given how much proven production the team lost in the Brown trade.
Instead, the Titans opted to lean on their youth. Burks, along with fifth-round pick Kyle Philips, had fans cautiously optimistic that Tennessee’s passing game would be fine, especially since the offense ran through superstar running back Derrick Henry.
However, Burks struggled out of the gate. Conditioning and asthma issues limited his participation in the team’s rookie mini-camp. Philips looked the part in camp and excelled, particularly in the return game in preseason action.
But when the season rolled around, the Titans were quickly searching for answers after the UCLA product muffed a couple of returns.
Both Burks and Philips missed significant time due to injuries this year. The latter was limited to just four games, hauling in eight receptions for 78 yards.
Burks played in 11 games and had his best in Green Bay to the tune of seven receptions for 111 yards, although his stats were padded by a 51-yard catch when the Packers were expecting the Titans to run out of the clock.
Overall, the Titans’ first-round draft pick hauled in 33 receptions for 444 yards and just one score in his rookie campaign.
Tennessee finished with the third-worst passing offense in the league, which played a significant factor in the team’s seven-game losing streak and ultimate downfall following a 7-3 start.
“We just got on a [expletive] streak and we couldn’t get off it,” Titans head coach Mike Vrabel said. “Couldn’t make plays when we needed to, couldn’t be consistent enough when we needed to.”
You can’t help but wonder where the team would have been if Brown was still on the roster.
Sure, the Titans may have been better if not for enduring another season with a ton of injuries. And sure, Tennessee may have been able to win a couple of games down the stretch and secure their third-straight AFC South title if Ryan Tannehill hadn’t been lost for the season.
But one thing was widely apparent — the Titans badly missed Brown, who had a career year in his first season with the Eagles.
After being acquired, Philadelphia and Brown’s camp quickly reached a four-year, $100 million contract extension.
In his first game with the team, the former Titan hauled in 10 receptions for 155 yards. He also had one of the best performances of the year against his old team, bringing in eight catches on 10 targets for 119 yards and two touchdowns in the Eagles’ 35-10 blowout win.
“This one meant a lot to me… I’d be lying to you to say I didn’t circle this game,” Brown said. “I wanted to make them regret that decision.”
“To be honest, it’s been personal since the trade,” he added. “I’ve been trying to keep it down. I stated that’s where I wanted to be.”
Two days after the Eagles topped the Titans, general manager Jon Robinson was relieved of his duties. Apparently, seeing her former player — a player the organization could have conceivably kept around — go off was too much for owner Amy Adams Strunk to let this go on any further.
“Honestly, I had made the decision it was time to move forward,” Adams Strunk said. “There was no reason to go six, seven, eight weeks, however long we remain in the season.
“It was not fair to Jon, it was not fair to the team, it just seemed like the right thing. It gives us plenty of opportunity now to identify future candidates that we’re going to interview. To get to watch the internal candidates. I’m just not that person that’s going to sit on a decision like that.”
“I’d already made my decision,” Strunk added. “A.J. had a great game. More power to him, but that didn’t actually have anything to do with that.”
Whether you choose to believe that last quote, there’s no denying how impactful the Brown trade was and will continue to be until the Titans find someone who can replicate his production.
To add insult to injury, Brown broke the Eagles’ single-season receiving yards record on the game’s first play in the team’s 22-16 victory over the New York Giants on Sunday, a win that clinched the Eagles the No. 1 seed.
In all, Brown (1,496) outgained Tennessee’s top-three receivers (1,421) by himself. At a few points during the season, he had more yards than all of Tennessee’s receivers combined.
It will be interesting to see where the Titans go from here as their offseason is somewhat unexpectedly already underway. Tennessee is well over the salary cap, so there are sure to be some players (and maybe franchise players), that the team will have to part with in order to free up salary.
That said, the Titans need to look internally and figure out if their window of contention is closed or if they can squeeze another year or two out of the core of players they have.
They’ll certainly need to add more talent on the offensive side of the ball. The questions we had about this offense as far back as the preseason were blatantly apparent throughout the year.
Added, with Henry recently turning 29 years of age, the front office will need to consider his long-term replacement sooner rather than later. Is that player already on the roster? Only time will tell.
It will be a long offseason for the Titans and the trade of A.J. Brown could be one that will continue to haunt the team for years to come.
