After a pretty impressive comeback season, Baltimore Ravens wide receiver John Brown now finds himself a free agent. Although his numbers dipped dramatically down the stretch of the season, that can be attributed to the change in both quarterback and style of offense for the Ravens. He’s actually arguably one of the better free agent receivers available this year.
2019 NFL Free Agent: John Brown
Brown finished the 2018 season with 42 catches for a team-leading 715 yards and five touchdowns. It should be noted that there’s a significant difference between his numbers with Joe Flacco and with Lamar Jackson. In the nine games that Flacco started, Brown had 601 of his 715 yards. As such, he was well on pace for his second career 1,000-yard season. However, with Jackson starting, he only had 114 yards in the final seven games. The switch to a run-based offense probably did not help.
2018 had been Brown’s first year with the Ravens. Prior to that, he had played for the Arizona Cardinals from 2014-2017. He had his lone 1,000-yard season in 2015. The next two years saw him being plagued with injuries, but he played all 16 games in 2018 and made a bit of a resurgence as a result despite his opportunities disappearing in the latter half of the season. Although normally he’s been a #2 receiver, he proved that he was capable of being a top option this year as well. Thus, any team that’s in need of either a top receiver or a complement receiver should give him a look.
Possible Fits
The Ravens may be wanting to bring Brown back, given that he was their leading receiver. However, given the style of the offense right now, that may not be the best fit for Brown. And they do also have Michael Crabtree and Willie Snead to fall back on – not top options, but in a run-first offense like that they’d be serviceable enough.
There are a bunch of teams that could use a receiver like him that could turn into a top target. However, the ones that come to mind where he’d flourish the most would be the Carolina Panthers, San Francisco 49ers, and Oakland Raiders. These teams have more stability at quarterback, and their passers aren’t afraid to throw it downfield sometimes either. He could also go to the Denver Broncos and join back up with Flacco, with whom he played pretty well.
There’s are also teams where he could be a great complement as well. The Pittsburgh Steelers come to mind. Antonio Brown appears to be on the way out, so getting a receiver that could play well opposite from JuJu Smith-Schuster like John Brown could benefit both parties. There’s also the Indianapolis Colts, who have had a rotating crew of receivers opposite T.Y. Hilton. Brown’s one of multiple receivers who could bring solid consistency to the #2 receiver position on that team.
Last Word
Perhaps because it’s of the lack of looks he got down the stretch in 2018, but Brown is quite an underrated free agent receiver. He’s proven before he can put up quite solid numbers, and now he’s proven that his health isn’t the issue it was a couple years ago. He’s only 28, so he’s still in his prime and could prove to be a great contributor for whoever picks him up, assuming the Ravens don’t re-sign him – which, if those seven games so far with Jackson were anything to go on, would arguably be wasting his talent.
There’s a bunch of teams that could make good use of him, so after a couple of more red-hot free agent receivers like Golden Tate and Adam Humphries fly off the market, he should be getting some looks. It’ll be interesting to see if the Broncos try to reunite Flacco and Brown. It would also be pretty interesting to see another receiver named Brown playing opposite Smith-Schuster for the Steelers. This will be a player to watch.
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