A.J. Brown has missed the Titans’ last three games with a chest injury, which resulted in him being placed on injured reserve (IR). What is his status ahead of tonight’s game against the 49ers? Will Brown be available to start on playoff rosters for fantasy football managers, and how has he performed so far this season?
Update 12/23/21: According to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, the Titans have activated A.J. Brown to play tonight against the 49ers.
Will A.J. Brown play tonight vs. the 49ers?
The Titans designated Brown to return from IR on Tuesday this week, and he was spotted back at practice yesterday. The feeling around Titans camp is that Brown will play tonight vs. the Niners, barring any setbacks.
We will update this post with any new information, but his status for game day will not be official until the release of inactives. Julio Jones also faced an injury this week, as he left the Titans’ game against the Steelers with a hamstring issue. Jones sat out of practice on Monday and Tuesday, but he was a full participant again for Wednesday.
How has A.J. Brown performed so far this season?
Brown’s statistics are down this season, following a breakout year in 2020. The Titans were rolling on offense all season, and Brown was one of the beneficiaries of that. This year, it’s been a little more of a roller coaster, with Tennessee losing Derrick Henry for the year midway through the season. Without him, their offense is not as well-put-together.
Brown has 615 yards this season and 3 touchdowns. He had 11 touchdowns and 1,075 yards receiving in the 2020 regular season. This may be the first season since entering the league that Brown won’t clip 1,000 yards receiving.
Why the dip in receiving yards?
Brown has not lost any talent overnight, his numbers are just the result of a sputtering offense without one of the league’s brightest stars on the field. The loss of Henry is monumental. On top of that, the offensive coordinator who has worked with that group since the Titans drafted Brown, Arthur Smith, moved on to the head coaching role in Atlanta.
You only have to look at the two best games of Brown’s season to recognize that he’s one of the league’s finest receivers. Brown did clip 100 yards receiving in back-to-back weeks this season, and those two games came against two of the league’s highest-performing defenses. Brown notched 133 yards against the Chiefs and 155 against the Colts, scoring a touchdown in both.
Regardless of a dip in the stats columns, getting Brown back will be a huge boost for the Titans’ offense, who are in desperate need of a win to hold onto the top spot in the NFL standings in the AFC South.