Brown leaned on his faith and family to get him through his recovery period. The team also provided him with a good support system. People who weren’t even involved in the offense, like defensive pass game coordinator Jason Simmons, would stop Brown in the hallway to ask him how he was doing. Those kinds of actions, Brown said, “can push you along.”
Still, Brown admitted there were difficult moments.
“There’s definitely been moments where I struggled maintaining my patience and got down on myself, but it’s natural,” Brown said. “You can’t stay in those mindsets. But feeling it and moving past it can also help.”
Now that those moments have passed, Brown is excited to get back on the field. He said he had a good day of practice on Wednesday and wanted to keep building upon that for Sunday. The Commanders’ coaching staff is also eager to get him back, and offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury said during his Thursday press conference that Brown is “a huge part” of their offense.
“He’s a super talented player,” Kingsbury added. “He is a guy who can really run any type of route, play inside, play outside and has a great knowledge of our system so he can help guys get lined up, and he’s really a steadying presence for us when he is out there.”
The Commanders went into the season believing that McLaurin, Brown and fellow wide receiver Deebo Samuel would be their primary options in their passing game. While that didn’t unfold exactly as they planned, they see value in getting their full complement of weapons on the field to end the season.
Brown said that having all three of them on the field together again is going to be “a problem” for defenses.
“I just plan on, when I get back out there, being at my best and threatening the defense in multiple ways.”