The New England Patriots have made a significant decision on wide receiver AJ Brown and his injury status.
The Patriots are placing Brown on injured reserve, per ESPN’s Adam Schefter. The move means Brown will miss a minimum of four games before he can be activated again.
The news will not come as a huge surprise. It was reported on Thursday that Brown’s high ankle sprain would cost him at least four games. If the Patriots had been confident that Brown had any chance of beating that schedule, the team might have held off on placing him on injured reserve, but this makes it very clear that this was not seen as a serious possibility.
While there was never a good set of games for Brown to miss, the Patriots will miss him against the Pittsburgh Steelers and particularly the Buffalo Bills. If he misses much longer than four weeks, his availability for a tough Week 7 test at the Chicago Bears could also come into question.
Brown suffered the injury on an underthrown pass from Drake Maye, which led to the Patriots quarterback being blamed for the injury on what turned out to be a very poor night for him.
