Tyler’s Take: AJ Brown Is Telling the Truth, Titans to Blame for Departure

AJ Brown’s recent appearance on the “Raw Room” podcast shined a light on the negotiations that led up to him being traded from the Tennessee Titans to the Philadelphia Eagles. Clearly, the Titans are to blame for the split.

NASHVILLE — The Tennessee Titans lost the most talented receiver they have ever had prior to the 2021 season when they traded AJ Brown to the Philadelphia Eagles due to a contract dispute that could not be resolved. AJ Brown spoke on the “Raw Room” podcast, hosted by former NFL players Daren Bates and Jalen Collins, and outlined exactly how his relationship with the Titans came to an end. I believe AJ is telling the truth and blame the Titans for losing a generational talent.

It seemed obvious in real-time as well, but to this day some Titans’ fans don’t want to accept the reality. The Titans dropped the ball. Brown spoke about the process in detail and even had receipts to prove it. Brown read text messages directly from Titans’ head coach Mike Vrabel showing that Vrabel was doing everything he could to keep the receiver on the team.

The first text Brown read from Vrabel said, "You OK with all this trade talk? It’s nonsense as far as I’m concerned.”

Brown replied, "Nothing I’m used to. First time dealing with the trade talk and all the contract talk. I know a lot of things has to happen in the next couple months. I want to be here. I know it’s a business and anything can happen. It’s all in y’all’s hands at this point."

To which Vrabel responded, “We aren’t trading you but I would tell you just from my personal experience as a player and as a coach that you need to prepare to have patience. Just keep doing everything you can do to prepare on the other stuff and it will take care of itself. I promise you. Let’s visit again tomorrow."

It is clear Vrabel was dead set on keeping AJ Brown a Titan, but it seems he even knew that Titans’ former general manager Jon Robinson could make a colossal mistake soon. Vrabel even said to the media at one point prior to the trade that he would not trade Brown as long as he was the head coach. Vrabel echoed that sentiment to Brown the day after the text exchange when they met in person.

Vrabel saying in person, “As long as I’m the head coach, you ain’t going nowhere."

Brown admitted on the show that his first feelings towards Vrabel were negative immediately after the trade. He felt Vrabel had let him down and not fulfilled his promise to keep him a Titan, but Brown also said, after some reflection, he realizes Vrabel was not at fault and did all he could to prepare him for what was coming.

This is no shock to me. What was shocking was hearing Vrabel, who rarely gives players strong endorsements of praise, would come out last offseason and plainly say AJ would not be traded. That made the trade even more shocking. It was obvious from that moment there was a divide between Vrabel and Robinson. There is no way Vrabel would give that strong of a public endorsement just to be okay with being proven a liar after the trade.

That’s why the least shocking part about all this is what Brown said about former general manager Robinson next.

Brown said, “I never talked to J-Rob.”

How as a general manager do you not find a way to have an in-person sit down to iron this out or at least reach out to be courteous. Zero human touch to the negotiations is a quick way to lose a player like Brown. That was far from the only reason though. Maybe worse than that was the low-ball offer Robinson made and held firm to.

Brown plainly laid out the deal he was being offered. The Titans offered $16 million a year with incentives to get Brown to $20 million a season. Players like DJ Moore, Mike Williams and Chris Godwin had all gotten deals recently for $20 million a season. Brown is a superior player to those three so if I were Brown and his representation I would be endlessly offended. Not only can you not offer more than $20 million a season, but it is incentive dependent.

What a slap in the face to a player who got $25 million a season from the Eagles and was worth every penny. The Eagles went to the Super Bowl and Brown set the record for most receiving yards in a single season in Eagles’ history. Just an embarrassing move from Robinson at the time, but even more ridiculous now.

How in the world could any Titans’ fan still blame Brown for the departure? Robinson disrespected the star with a far below market offer and didn’t even speak with him throughout the process. Some fans though will still cling to the idea that Brown did not want to be a Titan and wanted to leave no matter what, but again, that is not true.

Brown also said on the show that he spoke with his agent, Tory Dandy of CAA, about his desire to stay in Tennessee, telling Dandy, “‘Bro, I want to be in Tennessee.”

Brown said his agent responded and advise where the situation was. “Bro, A.J., Tennessee’s not budging. They’re not moving. You told me to do a job. I did the job. It’s in front of you. You’d be a fool not to take this.’ I say ‘F*** it. Let’s do this.’ I get off the phone and I’m crying my eyes out. I’m hurt. I’m hurt. And there’s a part of what I just accomplished ain’t even set in. I’m more hurt than anything."

If you read all this and choose to still defend the move the Titans made to trade their generational star then there is no helping you. It’s a cognitive dissonance you see from the mothers’ of criminals who refuse to accept their sons’ crimes. Some folks will never have the ability to blame their favorite team for their mistakes, but after seeing Brown discuss these comments on the show, it is obvious he is telling the truth and, as mentioned earlier, he was willing to show the receipts.

A lot of fans say things like “move on” or “let it go,” but the truth is when a team makes a mistake of this magnitude, it never goes away. AJ Brown and the Titans will be linked forever. When Brown is inducted into the Hall of Fame he will talk about the Titans and be asked about that time. A century from now it will be mentioned when they discuss bad NFL trades.

The only thing that will make it go away is for the Titans to get a receiver as good as Brown, which didn’t happen the first twenty years of the franchise’s history and may not happen for twenty years after or they could win a Super Bowl. Until one of those things take place, the pain and the story isn’t going anywhere.

At least now, we can collectively accept the Titans were entirely at fault here and AJ Brown has been telling us the truth. Let’s hope new general manager Ran Carthon never makes a mistake quite like Jon Robinson did.

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