FOXBOROUGH - It didn’t take long for Mike Vrabel to put A.J. Brown in the crosshairs. Try day one, in fact.
On the opening play of 11-on-11, Drake Maye decided to throw to his new top target, even with Christian Gonzalez in his hip pocket. As he’s done his entire career, Brown was able to create enough space to get the ball away from his body. However, his attempt at a one-handed catch failed, the ball falling off his hand and to the turf. That made the lowlight reel.
“He expects me to make that play, and so do I,” Brown said. “I did the hard part, and I caught it away from my body; I just have to bring it in with my other hand.
“Vrabes doesn’t care about style points and I don’t, either. Maybe he thought I was just trying to get the crowd going or something. But it’s Vrabes. You take everything with a grain of salt, listen to him, and just make the catch.”
As we know, Brown is a favorite of Vrabel’s. The two have both talked about their off-field relationship continuing long after parting ways in Tennessee (trade to Philadelphia). But the investment goes beyond that. The Pats surrendered real draft capital for a player who’s about to be 29 years old. Not ancient, but generally speaking for a player at this position, much closer to the end than the beginning. Perhaps that’s why Vrabel went on the attack Monday morning when asked about Brown’s headline-making knee, which has been the subject of much discussion and conjecture.
“I think a lot of things get fabricated, and people tell stories,” Vrabel opined. “We did not ... what other teams think or thought ... we are very confident in where he is at physically. He has done every single thing (thus far.) Will he do every single thing? Nope. He will have time where me, Frank [Piraino], Jim [Whalen], or us as a group decide that, just like Morgan [Moses] yesterday, just like Reggie [Gilliam] yesterday, there will be things. But I think he has gotten off to a really good start, both mentally and physically, and acclimating himself to his team.”
Monday, Brown dismissed the talk about the knee, saying he didn’t pay attention to what was said or written. He did, however, address it in the spring, as did Eliot Wolf, who admitted the knee is a “factor” that “has some wear and tear that we were aware of.” That said, the medical/training staff