{"id":908286,"date":"2026-06-02T21:00:16","date_gmt":"2026-06-02T21:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/908286\/"},"modified":"2026-06-02T21:00:16","modified_gmt":"2026-06-02T21:00:16","slug":"josh-mcdaniels-offers-intriguing-ex-patriot-player-comp-for-a-j-brown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/908286\/","title":{"rendered":"Josh McDaniels offers intriguing ex-Patriot player comp for A.J. Brown"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>FOXBORO \u2014 Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels sees a little bit of Rob Gronkowski in A.J. Brown\u2019s game.<\/p>\n<p>McDaniels met Brown on Tuesday morning and was already coaching him on the Patriots\u2019 practice field just a few hours later during the team\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bostonherald.com\/2026\/06\/02\/patriots-otas-observations-a-j-brown-appears-drake-maye-shines-starter-leaves-early\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">latest OTAs session<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The longtime Patriots OC was asked if Brown\u2019s traits compare to anyone that McDaniels has coached. He\u2019s been with some quality wide receivers, including Randy Moss, Davante Adams, Brandon Marshall, Demaryius Thomas, Wes Welker and Julian Edelman, among others.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t know, I mean, this is a big man,\u201d McDaniels said. \u201cRandy was tall, certainly, and fast, and all the rest of it. I think, honestly, they\u2019re all a little different. And I say they, meaning I\u2019ve been fortunate to have a chance to be around some really good ones. Not sure if I\u2019ve been around one that looks just like him.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMaybe the closest thing I\u2019ve seen is Gronk. This is a big guy. Does a lot of things well, and looking forward to seeing how we can acclimate him and fit him into our system.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Gronkowski <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bostonherald.com\/2026\/04\/29\/rob-gronkowski-voted-by-fans-into-patriots-hall-of-fame\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">will be inducted<\/a> into the Patriots Hall of Fame this year.<\/p>\n<p>McDaniels gave a quick scouting report on Brown, who has played with the Titans and Eagles since being selected in the second round of the 2019 NFL Draft.<\/p>\n<p>Brown <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bostonherald.com\/2026\/06\/02\/better-late-than-never-for-a-j-brown-trade-to-patriots-fulfilled-childhood-dream\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">could have played under<\/a> McDaniels sooner if the Patriots had drafted him instead of N\u2019Keal Harry in the first round of the 2019 draft.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBig, physical, aggressive, explosive, really good hands,\u201d McDaniels said. \u201cHe\u2019s just a competitive guy, and you watch him play, and there\u2019s a force to the way that he plays the game. So, looking forward to getting used to the things that he can do that I don\u2019t know about, which I\u2019m sure there\u2019s many of those. Had an opportunity to have a few different receivers come into our system at times, and you\u2019ve heard about them, you\u2019ve seen them, you\u2019ve watched them play on tape, but then to actually get them on the grass and watch them do different things, it just brings the picture to life. So, looking forward to seeing all those things.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Brown only played a smattering of snaps during 11-on-11s in Tuesday\u2019s practice. He caught one pass from quarterback Drake Maye.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FOXBORO \u2014 Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels sees a little bit of Rob Gronkowski in A.J. Brown\u2019s game.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":908287,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2050],"tags":[4955,833,839,7,838,1167,249,2326,2094,6,15,835,61050,208,107497,43714,112574,19972,112575,834,61051,61052,80497,724,837,505],"class_list":["post-908286","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-england-patriots","tag-2026-nfl-draft","tag-drake-maye","tag-eliot-wolf","tag-football","tag-mike-vrabel","tag-new-england","tag-new-england-patriots","tag-newengland","tag-newenglandpatriots","tag-nfl","tag-nfl-draft","tag-nfl-news","tag-nfl-patriots","tag-patriots","tag-patriots-2026","tag-patriots-free-agency","tag-patriots-free-agents","tag-patriots-game","tag-patriots-moves","tag-patriots-news","tag-patriots-schedule","tag-patriots-stats","tag-patriots-trades","tag-pats","tag-robert-kraft","tag-super-bowl"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116682530749440050","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/908286","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=908286"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/908286\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/908287"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=908286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=908286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=908286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}