The Tennessee Titans got just about all they could have hoped for out of wide receiver A.J. Brown in his rookie season.
The former second-round pick was one of the most explosive players in the entire league, as his big-play ability was on display on a weekly basis.
Brown led all rookie receivers with 1,051 receiving yards and nine total touchdowns (one rushing). He was also insanely efficient, as he needed just 52 catches to compile his impressive numbers.
Brown finished with the second-most yards per reception (20.2) among all pass-catchers, and his 463 yards after the catch ranked seventh among tight ends and wide receivers.
Every advanced metric loves Brown because of that efficiency, and Next Gen Stats is no different. Using advanced metrics, NFL.com’s Nick Shook ranked the Titans’ wideout as a top-10 pass-catcher from 2019 in a list that includes both wide receivers and tight ends.
Catch rate: 61.9%. Expected catch rate: 54.7%. Difference: 7.2 percentage points.
A breakout rookie who too often was overlooked nationally, Brown ripped up defenses with his combination of size and speed. Remember Ryan Tannehill’s league-leading passer rating? He can thank Brown for much of that, as Tannehill and Marcus Mariota compiled a combined passer rating of 127.6 when targeting Brown, the best mark of any of these pass-catchers. Teams afforded him 5.3 yards of cushion off the line on average, but they also learned that pressing Brown can get them beat, too. The receiver faced the third-highest press rate (38.3 percent) of these 10 pass-catchers, yet still managed to catch 52 passes for more than 1,000 yards. In fact, defenses blanketed Brown, who faced a greater tight-window percentage than any of these 10 players at 33.3 percent of all targets. He was only open on 25 percent of targets and rarely wide open (9.5 percent), helping explain his positive catch-rate difference. Brown won with size, strength, drive and desire in 2019. He’s going to be a nightmare for opposing defenses in the years to come.
The most exciting thing for Brown in 2020 is that he’ll have a full year of Ryan Tannehill under center.
In 2019, Tannehill didn’t take over until Week 7, and it comes as no surprise Brown’s game was elevated once Tennessee was getting better quarterback play.
From Week 7 on, Brown was graded as the third-best receiver in the league, according to Pro Football Focus, and he recorded 778 of his 1,051 yards and four of his five 100-yard games in that span.
Of course, defenses are going to make adjustments to better protect against Brown blowing up, but thanks to his physicality and strength, the Ole Miss product doesn’t necessarily need to be wide open to make things happen.
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