AJ Brown traded to Eagles

[KingTitan]

My final thought is that good AJ found someone to give him his money. He wasn't going to get $80 million from anyone. 
I think he didn't want to be here after a while, asked for an insane amount and demanded a trade to be the kicker to it all. 
What AJ should have said: 
"Titans fans, with the current WR market, I approached the Titans for a new deal. Changes in free agency and my fellow WRs on other teams changed the price point for a player with my production. After a few weeks of negotiating, it became clear the Titans and I were not going to agree on compensation. Being a NFL player take a toll on the body and I'm not asking for sympathy. I am saying I wanted to maximize my window of opportunity to make an income we all dream about. With that said, I asked the team to look into opportunities for other franchises that were interested in my services at a salary I could agree upon. Thank you fans. Thank you to the Adams family. Thank you Nashville. Thank you Titans.  One last time.....TitanUp!

Good luck in the future. I'll be rooting for you from a distance." 

[titans0021]

I’ve mostly reached the acceptance stage at this point.

From reading between the lines, our initial offer was likely a decent amount below market value and AJ was offended at getting offered Christian Kirk money and the frustration probably built up to a level where he went fully unreasonable. 

I don’t believe he ever told the team he’d take $22 million per. I do believe he submitted an insane counter and demanded a trade at the same time. My guess is that the $22 million number is something he had in mind before the negotiations even started and had our initial offer came in around there, we probably get something done. But we weren’t close and he got mad and cut off contact rather than just treating them as standard business negotiations.

I still don’t necessarily think we needed to rush to trade him. Everything we’ve ever seen indicates AJ is an emotional dude and probably just needed time to cool down. We still had a year left on his rookie deal with an option to tag and as Davante Adams showed, being on the tag doesn’t necessarily diminish your trade value anyways. But my real guess is that, if we waited a month or two and came back with a fair market offer, the relationship could’ve been mended fairly easily.

We are a worse football team without AJ. That’s pretty simple. He’s the most dynamic and exciting receiver we’ve had here. Losing him before he even reaches his prime is incredibly painful. But both sides probably share in the blame for things falling apart so rapidly.

[KingTitan]

The more I see, the more I realize he saw a chance to finally play with Hurts and get paid. Won't be long before they tell Elijah Moore to cause a fit to get out of New York and get to Philly. 

[TitanRedd]

No comment 😆

[VY-FTW]

Yeah the more that comes out dude. AJ... Yeah he gave it all on the field but he wasn't for the boys. Was he the best we've ever had? Him and Mason for me yes but can we WIN without AJ? YES. Will Burks be half of what AJ? Will he be better??? WHO KNOWS.. 

Can we afford JARVIS LANDRY by chance LOLOL? Pairing him back with Tanny just seems so right. And he's a dawg probs looking for crazy money but man our WR lacks depth imo and its like BOOM or bust type with Woods coming off the ACL and Burks a rookie tho I do think he will impress. Cause damn it I don't wanna watch NWI anymore.. AT ALL

 

Edit.. Nvm on Jarvis. Reggie Roberson will be good.. Adds real SPEED and I think we found us something wild. Stand by my boom or bust statement tho

Edited May 2, 2022 by VY-FTW

[KingTitan]

He didn't want to be here. 

Never gave the Titans a chance to really negotiate. 

Just want to say that. 

[titans0021]

39 minutes ago, KingTitan said:

He didn't want to be here. 

Never gave the Titans a chance to really negotiate. 

Just want to say that. 

I’d be fascinated to know just how bad our initial offer was. Because I’m guessing you’re correct that we didn’t have a chance to negotiate, but I’m assuming it’s because he felt like we burned the bridge from the start.

Because if we came in at like $17 million and it took a few hours to find a team willing to give us a first and third for the right to give him $25 million per, I get it. We looked at it as a simple business negotiation, but AJB clearly reacted aggressively negatively to whatever number we put out there.

I think it’s silly to think that he didn’t ever want to be here. There was obviously a turning point where everything fell apart relatively recently. Robinson and Vrabel wouldn’t have been so publicly adamant about their love for him if they thought there was a chance he simply wanted out.

[titans0021]

I’ll continue to assume that AJs side of the story was a mix of the truth and how he viewed things as someone that clearly was angry and felt slighted.

My guess is that the offer he mentioned was relatively accurate and our initial offer, but obviously not the final number we would’ve gone to if it functioned like a normal negotiation.

In that case, we came at $16 million with incentives, AJ saw red and immediately wanted out. Any offer his side tossed out after was almost certainly done in bad faith (hence the $80+ million guaranteed we leaked).

[titans0021]

Just tossing this out there for those that we’re blaming Tannehill’s contract for us not being able to afford AJ (cough: PK :cough). Even with the extension, his 2022 hit went up like $1.5 million. Given Tannehill’s out next year, his contract was pretty irrelevant.

[KingTitan]

2 hours ago, titans0021 said:

I’d be fascinated to know just how bad our initial offer was. Because I’m guessing you’re correct that we didn’t have a chance to negotiate, but I’m assuming it’s because he felt like we burned the bridge from the start.

Because if we came in at like $17 million and it took a few hours to find a team willing to give us a first and third for the right to give him $25 million per, I get it. We looked at it as a simple business negotiation, but AJB clearly reacted aggressively negatively to whatever number we put out there.

I think it’s silly to think that he didn’t ever want to be here. There was obviously a turning point where everything fell apart relatively recently. Robinson and Vrabel wouldn’t have been so publicly adamant about their love for him if they thought there was a chance he simply wanted out.

This is what I've concluded from reading and hearing everything.

• Titans wanted to give AJ an extension.  Both sides talked.
• Had a general idea what was what. Everything is good everyone is feeling good. 
• Titans offer was the $16 million thing with playing time incentives that bump it up to $20 million a year. 
• AJ agent wanted to see what the FA market would be set as and let that be a barometer of what AJ could demand. 
• AJ's agent is doing all the talking (as he should) AJ is pretty much out the loop. 
• FA happens and Kirk contract destroys the market. Adams gets deal, Hill gets deal, Mike Williams gets deal....
• AJ's team goes dark.
• AJ won't return calls from position coaches, coaches...nobody. 
• Titans remain firm, hey we want him here we are going to work out a deal. They love him.
• There is no more negotiation. His whole team won't come back to the table with a counter or anything. 
• AJ scrubs his twitter. 
• Works out with Jalen Hurts. They love the idea of being together. Hurts goes to Eagles saying he willing to come here. Go get him. (tampering?)
• They let AJ know what they will pay him.
• AJ's agent comes back to Titans with $80 million guaranteed or he won't do a single thing for the team. Titans were willing to do $45-50 Million. But an $30 Million gap is pretty significant
• AJ requests a trade specifically to the Eagles.
• Other teams call hearing he is available. Titans don't want too.
• AJ agent says he won't be returning to Titans for anything less than $80 million end of conversation.
• Draft day. Titans see that this will not go well. AJ isn't attempting to stay. He clearly wants out. Titans and Eagles enter negotiations and AJ is gone. 
• Titans are pissed. Vrabel pissed. Because it never was a true negotiation. It was hostile takeover mixed with a hostage situation mixed with ransom. 
• Titans could have kept him, but this is when they had as much negotiating power as any. Once it truly got out that AJ wouldn't return vultures would lowball the Titans. 
• AJ says it wasn't his fault. But he truly doesn't know how the negotiations went. he thinking Titans never wanted to offer anything that their starting point. Titans would have paid $21-22 million. What is that difference when the start was equaling close to $20.  That isn't a significant gap.  AJ is emotionally immature at times and young. 
• If Titans first offer offended him, then he needs to grow up. 
• AJ knows he requested a trade. He wanted to leave and nothing the Titans could do outside of making him the highest paid WR to keep him. 

 

[KingTitan]

2 hours ago, titans0021 said:

Just tossing this out there for those that we’re blaming Tannehill’s contract for us not being able to afford AJ (cough: PK :cough). Even with the extension, his 2022 hit went up like $1.5 million. Given Tannehill’s out next year, his contract was pretty irrelevant.

Titans would have found way to make it work.  Low number, balloon up next year with more cap space, no Tanny. 
I just feel AJ didn't want to be here anymore. He wanted to play with Hurts.  
Not that he hated it here. But playing with Hurts meant more than staying in Tennessee. 

[twotonebluenation]

Watching him throw out that pitch at the Phillies game. Damn man, I have never been so salty about a player. Sorry it may sound effed up, but I hope he super under performs that contract, and Burks out performs him. He has become the enemy to me. Lolz.

I really didn’t want to see the writing on the wall that he was gonna get traded. But, looking back, I should have seen that coming. 

[Daniel]

Meh.  I'm happy he got his money, and I loved him as a player, so I wish him the best.

I think the truth is somewhere in the middle of what both sides are putting out.  I doubt the Titans wouldn't find a way to navigate a difference of just $2m a year, but I also doubt AJ is just gaslighting everyone about it.

Burks doesn't have to outperform AJ for it to be worth it, but he does have to become a legit No. 1 receiver.  Or the Titans have to use that freed up money to sign a real difference maker next season.  Getting younger and cheaper at the position does have a benefit by itself.

I still wish it didn't play out like this, but I'm understanding it more and more as time goes on.

[TitanRedd]

On 5/3/2022 at 11:37 AM, titans0021 said:

Just tossing this out there for those that we’re blaming Tannehill’s contract for us not being able to afford AJ (cough: PK :cough). Even with the extension, his 2022 hit went up like $1.5 million. Given Tannehill’s out next year, his contract was pretty irrelevant.

I said this from the jump it had nothing to do with Tannehill contract, it had nothing to do with the titans being cheap, they simply had a # in mind they wanted for AJ based on his injury history

[615finest]