A.J. Brown Exits Patriots Debut With Ankle Injury as Coach Vrabel Offers No Immediate Update

SEATTLE — A.J. Brown's first night as a New England Patriot ended in a walking boot.

The wide receiver left Wednesday's season opener against the Seattle Seahawks with a right ankle injury in the third quarter and did not return. Coach Mike Vrabel said afterward he had no update. Brown finished with three catches for 26 yards on four targets. He also drew a pass-interference penalty that set up New England's only touchdown in a 13-10 loss at Lumen Field.

The play was ordinary until it was not. On third-and-4 from the Patriots' 48, about 90 seconds into the second half, Drake Maye threw low toward Brown. Seahawks cornerback Nehemiah Pritchett's knee landed on Brown's right ankle as the receiver reached for the incomplete pass. Brown stayed down, holding the ankle. Vrabel and trainers came onto the field. Brown walked off slowly under his own power, removed his helmet, waited for tight end Hunter Henry to leave the medical tent, then went in. He came out without his right cleat and went to the locker room with trainers.

The club first listed him as questionable. NBC sideline reporter Melissa Stark said he was taken for X-rays. At the start of the fourth quarter he was ruled out. After the game, Andrew Callahan of the Boston Herald reported Brown was in a walking boot. ESPN's Adam Schefter confirmed during the broadcast that Brown would not return.

Vrabel, speaking after the loss, offered nothing on severity or next week. That is the official word as of Thursday: ankle injury, out for the rest of Week 1, further testing still to come. Independent physicians commenting on television replay raised the possibility of a high-ankle sprain. Those are opinions from video, not the team's diagnosis.

New England acquired Brown from the Philadelphia Eagles in June for a 2028 first-round pick and a 2027 fifth-round selection. In four seasons in Philadelphia he topped 5,000 receiving yards and was a second-team All-Pro three times. In 2025 he caught 78 passes for 1,003 yards and seven touchdowns. He turned 29 in June. With the Eagles he missed five games to injury over four years — a sprained knee in a 2023 playoff, hamstrings in 2024 and 2025. He had been healthy enough to practice and play the opener.

The debut still showed why the Patriots paid that draft capital. Before the injury Brown looked comfortable. He drew 34 yards of interference on Josh Jobe in the second quarter, putting the ball at the 2. Maye threw a short touchdown to rookie tight end Eli Raridon. Brown's three catches were modest, but he was moving well until Pritchett rolled onto the ankle.

Without him, Maye's remaining targets were Mack Hollins, Romeo Doubs and Demario Douglas. Running back TreVeyon Henderson was already inactive with his own ankle injury. Backup lineman Ben Brown was out with a knee. The offense that was supposed to feature a proven No. 1 receiver became a field-goal operation after the 7-0 lead. Seattle won 13-10.

High-ankle sprains often cost multiple weeks. Low-ankle sprains can be days. A boot after X-rays is consistent with either, or with caution until MRI results. RotoWire listed an estimated return of Sept. 20 — Week 2 — as a placeholder, not a team announcement. The Patriots' next game is the first chance for a true practice report.

The trade will be judged on availability as much as production. A first-round pick in 2028 is expensive if Brown misses a stretch of Maye's third year as a starter. It is cheap if he plays 15 games and looks like the receiver who averaged more than 80 yards a night in his first three Philadelphia seasons. Week 1 settled nothing except that the ankle is the story until Friday's injury report, or whenever Vrabel has film and imaging.

Brown walked off. That is better than a cart. He also left his cleat in the tent and finished the night in a boot. Those two images are the entire update. Everything else — high ankle, return date, whether Maye's first big-ticket weapon is a multiweek absence — waits on tests the club has not described.

For Philadelphia, the night was a footnote with a familiar name. Brown's last Eagles game was a wild-card loss to San Francisco in January, three catches and a sideline argument with Nick Sirianni. His first Patriots game was three catches and an ankle. The football between those two nights is the reason New England traded the pick. The next report will say whether that football is available in Week 2.