It’s been a rough 24 hours for all of my friends who are Tennessee Titans fans here in Nashville.
The team shocked fans – and the entire league – last night during the first round of the NFL Draft when they traded star wide receiver A.J. Brown to the Philadelphia Eagles in exchange for the 18th and 101st overall picks in the draft.
It’s a move that has all NFL fans talking, especially because nobody saw it coming after Titans coach Mike Vrabel said just a few weeks ago that Brown was not on the trading block as long as Vrabel was the head coach in Nashville.
Asked by Rich Eisen of NFL Network whether the team would move Brown, Vrabel said flat out:
“Not as long as I’m the head coach. I love A.J. professionally, personally. I’ve gotten to know him well as his coach and enjoy seeing him as much as I possibly can.
I saw him here working out here earlier, said hi, so as long as I’m the coach here I would want to have A.J. Brown on my football team.”
Well apparently things changed in the past few weeks.
According to Titans GM Jon Robinson, the two sides worked to get a deal done but were ultimately too far apart, with Brown signing a $100 million contract with $57 million guaranteed upon being traded to the Eagles.
According to Brown, who’s at the end of his rookie deal after this season, the contract the Titans were offering was just too low:
“This wasn’t my fault. I wanted to stay, but the deal they offered was a low offer.”
Although Vrabel said that he was comfortable with the trade, which allowed the Titans to draft Arkansas wide receiver Treylon Burks with the pick they received for Brown, it looks like he needed a breather after his star wide receiver was shipped out of town.
Yeah Coach, I think all of Nashville is going to need a few minutes to wrap their minds around this one too.
