For the first time since the Tennessee Titans traded A.J. Brown to the Philadelphia Eagles for a pair of 2022 NFL draft picks, the wide receiver touched on the trade that rocked the Titans fan base on Thursday night.
Brown spoke to ESPN’s Turron Davenport following the deal and made it clear he wanted to stay in Nashville. He also revealed that the Titans’ offer was for $16 million per year, and up to $20 million annually with incentives.
“This wasn’t my fault,” Brown said of his exit from Nashville. “I wanted to stay, but the deal they offered was a low offer. The deal they offered wasn’t even $20 million a year.”
“I would have stayed if they offered me $22 million,” Brown continued.
Unfortunately, the Titans weren’t willing to come up to that number, which wasn’t a crazy ask for one of their best players – and that’s especially true in a wide receiver market that has exploded this offseason.
Seeing the Titans’ very low offer, which was likely due to concern over Brown’s injury issues the past few seasons, only makes this situation more frustrating, while also making Tennessee’s brass look even worse.
In the end, Brown ended up getting more than he was asking for with the Titans, as the Eagles promptly paid him a contract extension of $100 million over four years, with $57 million guaranteed.
Only time will tell if the Titans botched this situation entirely or not, but we can say this trade sucks even more now that we have more details.