Last year, a pair of Mississippi receivers entered the league through the same round of the same draft. This year, they’re having the same kind of impact on the NFL.
Titans receiver A.J. Brown and Seahawks receiver DK Metcalf have become star players in their second seasons. Although Metcalf has emerged into more of a media darling in 2020, Brown continues to be an extremely important piece of the Tennessee offense. As evidenced by his major impact on Sunday’s comeback win in Baltimore, including a key touchdown that started as a slant route and turned into a bum-rush.
The two former college teammates remain in close touch.
“We talk all the time,” Brown told PFT regarding Metcalf after Sunday’s game. “We discuss what’s going on. He’s off to a really great start. He’s doing really good right now, like we all talked about in the offseason. We all worked out together. We kind of talked about those things. He’s doing really well right now. I’m proud of him.”
Brown was asked whether they motivate each other to reach new heights of performance.
“Most definitely,” Brown said. “We both talk about where we want to be in this league. So by him doing good, by him balling on Sundays, it definitely gives me motivation to max energy, so we can sit down and talk about it.”
Brown said that he and Metcalf don’t have a friendly wager this year regarding statistics, but that they did in 2019.
Last year, Brown had more yards and touchdowns than Metcalf (1,051 vs. 900, and eight vs. seven). This year, Metcalf (who has played two more games) has 862 yards and nine scores; Brown has 540 yards and seven scores.
Regardless, their teams are each 7-3. And they both are a big reason for that.
They’ll square off for the first time next season, via the AFC-NFC schedule rotation. In theory, they could meet sooner than that, in Tampa.
