A.J. Brown Expectations Should Be Similar To Those Of This Raiders Receiver
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I'm not sure there is a ceiling on what a wide receiver like A.J. Brown can do with Josh McDaniels calling plays and Drake Maye throwing deep balls to him.
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NBC's Albert Breer thinks thatNew England Patriots fans can look to former Josh McDaniels receiver Davante Adams as a clear picture of what is possible.
"I think the specific player that you can look at from Josh McDaniels' past actually is not a Patriot; it's a Raider, it's Davante Adams," Breer said. "If you go back to 2022 when the Raiders traded for Adams, they targeted him something like 180 times."
The comparison works in the sense of an All-Pro receiver being traded into McDaniels' huddle. The only problem is, Brown's career is much better than Adams' was at this point.
Brown is a three-time All-Pro, Super Bowl champion, who is coming off his fourth consecutive 1,000-yard season and sixth total.
Adams has never made a Super Bowl. He had just three 1,000-yard seasons in his first seven years in the NFL.
His skill set is different from Brown's, which is why many fans turn to "The Freak," Randy Moss, who had the greatest receiving season in Patriots under McDaniels. But Breer doesn't think that quite holds up.
"People brought up Randy Moss, I'm not sure that really works," Breer said. "Randy Moss was more of a 'Z', not an 'X'. Davante Adams was a pure X."
I'm going to have to push back on this one too. Moss was a Z because of McDaniels' imaginative use of the receiver. He was moved around the formation because he had to be.
I expect the same will come from Brown. But if Doubs holds up his end of the bargain, perhaps the Patriots will be able to use Brown strictly on the outside in that X role that Breer is expecting.
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