A.J. Brown's Ankle Injury Now Expected to Cost Him Six Weeks, Not Four

A.J. Brown's first season in New England is already in trouble before it really started.

The Patriots wide receiver suffered a high ankle sprain in the third quarter of New England's 13-10 season-opening loss to the Seattle Seahawks on Wednesday, Sept. 9, according to NFL.com. He walked into the locker room afterward wearing a boot on his right foot, CBS News reported.

The Patriots placed Brown on injured reserve Friday, which locks him out for a minimum of four games, according to Newsweek and NFL.com. But NFL Network's Ian Rapoport reported Sunday, Sept. 13, on "NFL GameDay Morning" that the real timeline looks longer.

"My understanding is the expectation is that he misses six weeks," Rapoport said, as reported by Newsweek, Sports Illustrated, Heavy.com, NFL.com and CBS News. "Generally these are four-to-six week injuries, but this is a little more serious. Six weeks, no surgery planned."

That no-surgery detail is the one piece of good news in the update. Heavy.com noted that the Cleveland Clinic generally says high ankle sprains don't require surgery unless the damage is severe or the joint stays unstable, meaning Brown's ankle issue, while serious, hasn't crossed into that territory.

Under the original four-week floor, Brown would have missed games against the Pittsburgh Steelers, Jacksonville Jaguars, Buffalo Bills and Las Vegas Raiders, with a possible Week 6 return against the New York Jets on Oct. 18, per Heavy.com.

Stretch that to six weeks from the Sept. 9 injury, and the return date lands closer to Oct. 21, Heavy.com calculated. That puts Brown's realistic comeback at the Patriots' Week 7 game at the Chicago Bears on Oct. 22, not the Jets game the team had flagged as his earliest eligible return.

Sports Illustrated and CBS News laid out an even later scenario: if the six-week timeline holds fully, Brown's first real shot at the field could be Week 8 against the Miami Dolphins, with Sports Illustrated adding that his home debut at Gillette Stadium would arrive the following week against the Green Bay Packers.

Every outlet is working off the same Rapoport report, and the estimate carries real uncertainty. Recovery timetables are estimates, and Brown's actual return will depend on how the ankle responds to treatment, per Heavy.com.

Whatever the exact return date, the timing is rough. Newsweek and NFL.com both noted that New England faces four of last season's playoff teams in the six-game window Brown is now projected to miss: the Steelers, Jaguars, Bills and Raiders, sandwiched around games against the Jets and Bears.

Patriots coach Mike Vrabel addressed the injury before it became official, saying, "I know he will do everything that he can to get back as quickly as possible, and once we get the reports, then we'll figure out what the treatment plan is," according to CBS News.

In Brown's absence, the workload shifts to Romeo Doubs and Mack Hollins. Hollins struck a business-as-usual tone this week, telling reporters, "Keep playing. I wish life was like that, where you could wait for your guys to come back and be healthy again. It's NFL football... The fortunate thing is we get another week to play a game," as transcribed by ESPN's Mike Reiss and cited by Newsweek.

Brown was the centerpiece of New England's offseason, arriving via trade from the Philadelphia Eagles with 527 career receptions, 8,055 yards and 56 touchdowns, and three second-team All-Pro nods, according to Heavy.com. He was expected to be quarterback Drake Maye's top perimeter target.

In his lone game so far, Brown caught three passes for 26 yards on four targets and drew a 34-yard pass interference penalty that set up New England's only touchdown against Seattle, per NFL.com. He had played 30 of the offense's first 31 snaps at outside receiver, the team's website noted, before going down.

The Patriots host the Steelers at Gillette Stadium on Sunday, Sept. 20, at 1 p.m. ET in their home opener, per CBS News, the first of what could be six straight games without their top offseason addition. New England enters that game at 0-1, and Maye will need Doubs, Hollins and tight end Demario Douglas to carry more of the passing offense until Brown's ankle clears him to return.