December 15, 2022
If you have A.J. Brown on your fantasy football team this year, you're probably feeling pretty good about your chances as fantasy playoffs begin this weekend in most league formats.
The Eagles' top receiving target is the fifth-ranked fantasy wide receiver in the NFL this season, with 190.5 points and an average of 14.7 points per game in half-PPR leagues, according to Fantasy Pros. On the season, he's got 65 receptions for 1,020 yards and 10 touchdowns. He's having a career year after the Titans traded him to the Eagles on draft night, uniting him with MVP candidate Jalen Hurts.
Lots of NFL players will say they don't care about fantasy football — it's a stupid, fun, torturous game at the end of the day — but it's such a huge driver of fan engagement that it would be impossible for players not to think about it. Certain guys, like Chargers running back Austin Ekeler, embrace fantasy football. Other players, like Brown's teammate DeVonta Smith, have this to say about it: "idgaf about y'all fantasy team."
Apparently, Brown enjoys fantasy football and uses it as fuel for his success on the field.
During an interview this week with NBC Sports EDGE, Brown said he was in a league last year with a bunch of his Titans teammates. He wanted to draft himself, but got beat to it by center Ben Jones. At some point in the season, Brown boldly traded Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce in order to get himself on his squad.
A.J. Brown tells @MatthewBerryTMR how he had to acquire himself from his teammate in fantasy. 😂@1kalwaysopen_ | #FlyEaglesFly pic.twitter.com/r5LHTQmXTg
— NBC Sports EDGE Football (@NBCSEdgeFB) December 13, 2022
"I had to trade for myself," Brown said. "I had to trade Travis Kelce. I'm sorry, Travis. I love you, but I had to get myself."
Was this a good trade for Brown? That's tough to say without knowing the rest of his roster, or when the trade occurred. Giving up Kelce, under almost any circumstance, is sacrificing the greatest positional advantage in fantasy football. Brown also dealt with injuries last year that knocked him out of four games, including a stretch from weeks 12 through 15 that included a bye and the first round of the playoffs.
Here's where it gets kind of interesting. Kelce was, no doubt, his usual monster self last season. He put up 36.1 points in half-PPR against the Chargers in week 15, powering a lot of teams to the next round of the playoffs (and disappointing anyone who had a bye that week). But then Kelce got COVID-19 and missed the following game against the Steelers, leaving people who had him to scramble for a replacement that week.
Brown, on the other hand, missed the first round of the fantasy playoffs, but put up 26 points the next week against San Francisco, a season high for him. The next week, typically the championship round, he got only 5.1 points to Kelce's 10.9.
Brown didn't say how the trade turned out for him or who ended up winning the league. He also didn't say whether he's playing fantasy this season — and if he is, whether he has himself rostered.
People who have Brown on their teams are probably hoping that he does, since it might make him a little more amped up for the next few weeks.
