For the first time in a decade, the Tennessee Titans appear to have a legitimate No. 1 wide receiver. A.J. Brown, who was selected by the Titans in the second round of the 2019 NFL Draft, caught 52 passes for 1,051 yards and eight touchdowns during his rookie season. He became the only player in the Super Bowl era to record over 1,000 receiving yards while averaging over 20 yards per reception in his rookie season, per NFL Research.
Despite all of this success, Brown finished third in the Offensive Rookie of the Year voting behind Kyler Murray and Josh Jacobs. While he took offense to it at the time, he's ready to move on to year two.
"All the Offensive Rookie of the Year stuff, it is really behind me," Brown said Wednesday, via the Titans' official website. "I didn't win. Congratulations to Kyler, but I didn't win, and I am moving on with it. I am not going to sit here and dwell on it.
"It definitely made me hungrier to achieve bigger goals, so that's what I am going to do."
The Titans made it all the way to the AFC Championship game last year and they appear set on returning in 2020. Derrick Henry led the league in rushing yards while Ryan Tannehill reinvented himself as a franchise quarterback. The Titans recognized these two players were the reason they made it to the precipice of the Super Bowl and locked up both for 2020. Tannehill signed a four-year, $118 million contract extension while the Titans used the franchise tag on Henry. Brown is the prospective third member of this dynamic trio, and he believes that he can become even better in his second NFL season.
"I think the sky is the limit for me to be honest," Brown said. "I am a great learner, and I am going to keep learning each and every day. There's definitely a lot of things I can clean up. In year one, I was really just trying to play fast and not think about it too much. In year two I can really key in and focus what I really need to focus on and learn a lot more stuff in regard to coverages and everything else.
"(I want) to improve on everything. I want to be a complete, well-rounded football player."
Brown flashed his potential in his very first NFL regular-season game. During the Week 1, 43-13 win over the Cleveland Browns, the former Ole Miss star caught three passes for 100 yards -- making him the first Titan/Oiler since Sid Banks in 1964 to record at least 100 yards in his first career game with the team, according to The Tennessean. It would be the first of five 100-yard games Brown would record during the 2019 season.
Last year, Brown proved he knew how to use his unique combination of size and speed and was absolutely lethal in the open field. Expect him to have a much larger role in the offense this year, as Mike Vrabel continues to groom this big-play wideout that has Pro Bowl potential.