A.J. Brown is on injured reserve, and it is the actual A.J. Brown — the one who strung together four straight 1,000-yard seasons in Philadelphia before two premium draft picks changed hands to bring him to New England. Two games into his tenure there, a high ankle sprain has him done for at least a month.
Adam Schefter confirmed the corresponding roster move Friday. It tracks with the MRI results from Thursday, which ESPN reported confirmed the sprain, ruled out a fracture, and put the earliest realistic return at four weeks out.
The injury happened in the third quarter of New England’s Kickoff Game at Lumen Field, the same team that made them watch a Super Bowl banner go up before kickoff, in a rematch of Super Bowl LX. Seahawks cornerback Nehemiah Pritchett’s knee landed on Brown’s ankle as he hit the ground chasing a low throw from quarterback Drake Maye.
Brown didn’t come back.
Per WBUR, he finished with three catches for 26 yards and an earlier defensive pass interference penalty that set up New England’s only touchdown, in a 13-10 loss where Drake Maye threw three picks.
https://twitter.com/AdamSchefter/status/2098452101445591376
New England is already under fire for letting him limp to the tunnel instead of using a cart. Coach Mike Vrabel wasn’t committing to much right after the game: “I don’t know if he’ll be available going forward here for the next week, but we’ll see.” By the time IR became official, he’d softened that into: “I know he’ll do everything that he can to get back as quickly as possible.”
That trade cost a 2028 first-round pick and a 2027 fifth-round pick, according to the Boston Globe, which broke down the full package back in June. Last season alone, he caught 78 of 121 targets for 1,003 yards and seven touchdowns, his fourth straight 1,000-yard year.
It’s the résumé now sitting on injured reserve after an opener nobody won.
The Patriots gutted the receiver corps this offseason well before any of this happened: released Stefon Diggs in March, signed Romeo Doubs to a four-year, $68 million deal, then traded for Brown anyway. Take him out of the lineup and the depth chart runs through Mack Hollins, DeMario Douglas, Efton Chism III, Kyle Williams and Kayshon Boutte for the home opener against Pittsburgh, a trip to Jacksonville and a trip to Buffalo, minimum.
My mom texted asking if this was “the same A.J. Brown from Philadelphia” before I’d even finished reading the alert, which sums up the whole non-story. It was always the same guy who cost New England two draft picks, and now it’s the same team searching for answers at receiver for a month.
Four weeks is the floor, not the ceiling. Ankle sprains have a way of lingering into November. A month without your No. 1 receiver is survivable on its own; it gets harder when the room behind him was never built to cover for him in the first place.
Two draft picks bought New England two games of A.J. Brown.
