A.J Brown returned to the field on Sunday for the New England Patriots for the first time since their Week One loss against the Seattle Seahawks and it was a return to forget.
The New England Patriots traded for Brown during the offseason in a lucrative trade with the Philadelphia Eagles. Brown was brought in to provide Drake Maye with another option in the wide receiver department but his time with the Patriots has gotten off to a rocky start.
His injury up in the Pacific Northwest was certainly unfortunate but his performance on Sunday against the New York Jet left a lot to be desired from a quality WR like Brown. The 29-year-old was only able to secure three of his 10 targets during the game.
With a lot of people left seriously underwhelmed by Brown’s performance, former NFL coach Rex Ryan has issued a brutal verdict on the star wide receiver.
Rex Ryan tears apart A.J. Brown’s New England Patriots return
Brown ended the game on Sunday with 27 receiving yards to his name from his three catches. However, it was the number of failed receptions that really stood out with some worrying drops made by the receiver.
“I’m an expert in a few things. One of them is feet. Feet for hands. Are you kidding me? Dude couldn’t catch anything in that game, so he came out. It’s like, what the …? To me, we’ve been waiting the whole time. I’ve been talking about how much of a difference this guy’s going to make. You know what I mean? He’s going to make a huge difference,” said Ryan on Get Up.
“He comes out there. He looked heavy. It just wasn’t himself. To me, yes, he’s going to get better. No sense of panic on it, but my goodness, if it happens again, he had three drops. There are some guys, like Larry Fitzgerald, who probably dropped three balls his whole career.”
It was a brutal return to the field for Brown who could have had so many more yards to his name had he been able to bring in some of Maye’s deep throws. Although Ryan says there is no need to panic, the manner of these throws will certainly have concerned some fans.
The Patriots were able to cruise past the New York Jets on Sunday but tougher opposition will await Mike Vrabel’s team. The Chicago Bears are next up and Brown is certainly going to have to show more than what he did at the weekend.
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