Titans should sit A.J. Brown until Week 6, at earliest

Titans wide receiver A.J. Brown is “week-to-week” with a strained hamstring, per Adam Schefter.

Brown played just eight snaps in Tennessee’s Week 3 victory over the Colts. Brown pulled up a little lame on a first quarter deep ball attempt and didn’t play another snap after the fact. It looked like a hamstring issue at the time, and that’s since been confirmed by Schefter. It’s not the first time Brown has struggled with a hamstring injury. It’s the same ailment that kept Brown out of a large portion of training camp in his rookie season.

Titans fans will anxiously await Brown’s return to the field, but the Titans would be wise to play it smart with him and hold him out of the next two games, at least. It’s a long season that got even longer with the addition of a 17th game in 2021. The Titans are going to make the playoffs and should take the cautious approach with Brown.

We know how important Brown is to the Titans’ offense. Through his first two seasons in the league, Brown has totaled an impressive 2,126 receiving yards and 19 touchdowns on 122 catches.

The Titans will play the winless Jets and Jaguars over the next two weeks. There’s a good chance these are the two worst teams in the league. The Titans should absolutely be able to win both of these games with ease without their WR1. The Jets are first up in Week 4, and got blanked by the Broncos to the tune of 26-0 in Week 3 after scoring just six points in Week 2. Yikes.

Things will get significantly tougher from there. Tennessee will meet an excellent Bills team is Nashville on Monday Night Football in Week 6 before facing Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs on a short week in Week 7. The saving grace here is that both of these games are in Nashville, but that does little to diminish the challenge presented here. This is when the Titans should target for Brown’s return. If he needs more time, then so be it, but Brown definitely shouldn’t play before that Week 6 game against Buffalo.

The Titans just beat a bad Colts squad with Nick Westbrook leading the team in snaps at the receiver position, and there’s no reason they should need Brown to beat the hopeless Jets and Jaguars over the next two weeks.