Tennessee Titans’ Embarrassment from AJ Brown Trade Won’t Fade Until He is Truly Replaced
Former Tennessee Titans wide receiver A.J. Brown is on a historic tear right now, racking up 125 receiving yards or more in five straight games. Brown is only the second player in NFL history to do such a thing and watching him do it in primetime on Sunday Night Football for his new team, the Philadelphia Eagles, has to feel like the Titans lost in Week 7 despite not playing a game. The stain of the Brown trade has hung over the Titans since the moment it happened. Brown was an instant success for the Eagles and set their franchise record for receiving yards in his first year with them, being a huge part of a team that went to the Super Bowl.
The Eagles, and Brown, of course, played so well in a win over the Titans in 2022 that it got former general manager Jon Robinson fired immediately after the game. Now, Brown is on a roll to start 2023. Through seven weeks, Brown has more receiving yards than the entire Titans’ receiving core combined. Yes, read that again.
To make matters worse, the primary asset the Titans got back in the trade for Brown, the 18th pick in the 2022 draft, Treylon Burks, has mostly been a disappointment through a year and a third of his career. While veteran DeAndre Hopkins has been good, the Titans desperately miss an elite wide receiver in their passing game. All of that combines into massive public embarrassment for the Titans any time Brown has a great game. Which seems to happen every week just like it did for the Titans. The Titans are constantly mentioned during games they aren’t related to as the butt of the joke.
Social media, both outside fans and Titans fans alike, make jokes and sneers to either deal with the pain, or intensify it for a laugh. That’s all fine, it’s a part of the fun experience of being a fan. The good with the bad, right? However, the on-field experience for the Titans without Brown has been far more bad than good. The Titans need a player like Brown and the trade was historically bad. That hurt the football team in a major way and essentially ended the “window” this version of the Titans operated in.
That is why the only way this dark cloud ever evaporates is for the Titans to fix it on the field. Until the Titans replace Brown, in terms of having a player that caliber at his position, the burn will continue. It may not be in the short term. While the Titans would love for it to be, players like Brown have eluded the franchise for…well, forever. Whether sooner or later though, until the Titans find another elite-level, superstar wide receiver, the shame from the Brown move will remain.
The Titans wear it like a scarlet letter at this point. The only way to remove it is to truly find another top-tier receiver, which should result in more winning as well. Receivers are far more important in today’s game than they have been before. Hopefully, new general manager Ran Carthon will learn from the errors of the team’s past and the Titans won’t have to wait 20 years for their next superstar receiver, because public embarrassment like Sunday night, can’t be good for the team’s future.
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