New England’s passing game took a hit before the season even got rolling, and now the Patriots are preparing to go at least four games without A.J. Brown.
Brown is headed to injured reserve after suffering a high ankle sprain in the season-opening loss to the defending Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks, according to multiple reports. That means he’ll be out for the next month at minimum and will miss games against the Steelers, Jaguars, Bills and Raiders. The earliest he can return is Week 6 against the Jets.
The injury came early in the third quarter of a game that had already started to tilt on New England. Brown finished with three catches for 26 yards on four targets before leaving, and after he exited, the Patriots’ offense unraveled. Drake Maye threw three fourth-quarter interceptions as New England blew its lead and dropped the Super Bowl rematch.
Brown arrived in New England this offseason via trade from the Philadelphia Eagles, with the Patriots sending a 2028 first-round pick and a 2027 fifth-round pick the other way. He was supposed to be Maye’s top option all season long. Instead, the Patriots now have to piece together a receiver group that looks thin even before the real grind of the schedule begins.
That receiver room got even slimmer when New England traded Kayshon Boutte toward the end of training camp. With Brown out, the Patriots are left with Romeo Doubs, Mack Hollins, Demario Douglas, Kyle Williams and Efton Chism III at wideout.
Doubs has the biggest opportunity and, after Week 1, the most to prove. His Patriots debut was rough: no catches on three targets, one of which turned into an interception on a contested throw, and another that ended in a brutal drop. After signing a four-year, $68 million contract with New England this offseason, he needs to be a lot better, and fast.
Hollins gives the Patriots a dependable blocker and a player coaches trust, but he’s not the kind of receiver who scares defenses. He has never averaged more than 40.6 receiving yards per game in a season. Even after posting 51 yards in the opener, he’s not someone New England can count on to carry the passing game while Brown is out.
Douglas was active early and involved often, seeing seven targets and catching five passes, but those catches totaled only 20 yards. He’s mostly been a short-area slot receiver, the kind who can help sustain drives more than take over them.
Williams brings more juice, but he barely got on the field in the opener, playing just 12 snaps despite Brown’s injury. The rookie had 10 catches for 209 yards and three touchdowns last season, and he’s flashed in preseason, but the coaches clearly haven’t trusted him enough yet.
That may need to change now. Chism, meanwhile, was inactive for the opener after appearing in only eight games last season, when he caught three passes for 75 yards and mostly worked on special teams.
If the Patriots can’t get enough from that group, they may have to lean harder on tight ends and backs. Hunter Henry has been one of Maye’s go-to targets over his first two seasons, and that role figures to grow even more now. Rookie Eli Raridon caught the first touchdown of the season on the goal line and had a strong camp, though being asked to play a bigger role this early was not part of the original plan.
The backfield will matter, too. Rhamondre Stevenson caught five passes in the opener and has long been a useful option in the passing game. TreVeyon Henderson, who is dealing with an ankle injury, looks like New England’s best chance for a big play now that Brown is sidelined, but it’s unclear whether the Patriots trust him enough in protection to keep him on the field consistently.
However they sort it out, this is a real setback for an offense that was one of the league’s most efficient passing attacks last season. Maye managed with a similar level of receiver talent a year ago, but the schedule is tougher now. The Seahawks won’t be on the slate every week, but life figures to be more difficult until Brown is back and fully up to speed.
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For a few tense minutes, the football game was secondary to the disruption above it, a reminder of how quickly a night at the stadium can veer off script. The fan was eventually handcuffed, and while the crowd settled back in, the incident lingered as one of the stranger moments of an opener that already had plenty of bite. [Read more 🡒]