Antonio Brown missed the last two games of the season with an ankle injury, but he's practicing fully; healthy for Pittsburgh's game against the Jaguars this week. It's a tough matchup, but Brown did fine in the Week 5 meeting. In general, No. 1 wide receivers were hit-or-miss versus that elite secondary; some struggled, but many did just fine.
The week-by-week performances of No. 1 wideouts versus the Jaguars during the regular season are shown below. I set aside the early-season Ravens debacle in England; Baltimore just didn't show up for that one, with Joe Flacco passing for a comically bad 28 yards. And I left out the Bengals game, because A.J. Green got ejected early on in that one.
| NO. 1 WIDEOUTS VERSUS JAGUARS | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Opp | No. 1 | No | Yds | TD |
| at Hou. | Hopkins | 7 | 55 | 1 |
| Tenn. | Matthews | 3 | 43 | 0 |
| at NYJ | Anderson | 3 | 59 | 0 |
| at Pitt. | Brown | 10 | 157 | 0 |
| LAR | Woods | 5 | 70 | 0 |
| at Ind. | Hilton | 2 | 27 | 0 |
| LAC | Allen | 4 | 48 | 0 |
| at Cle. | Coleman | 6 | 80 | 0 |
| at Ariz. | Fitzgerald | 3 | 12 | 0 |
| Ind. | Hilton | 3 | 51 | 1 |
| Sea. | Baldwin | 3 | 78 | 1 |
| Hou. | Hopkins | 4 | 80 | 1 |
| at S.F. | Goodwin | 3 | 37 | 0 |
| at Tenn. | Matthews | 1 | 7 | 0 |
I see seven good games -- No. 1s either catching touchdowns or putting up at least 70 receiving yards, or both. Six really lousy ones -- under 50 yards and no touchdowns.
Brown is the league's best wideout, plus he himself had a big game against this defense. The closest guy to him on this list, Hopkins, averaged 68 yards and scored in both games.
So maybe you get a little less than elite numbers from Brown, but I tend to think he'll be OK. Still a chance he's one of the better performers among wide receivers playing this week.
--Andy Richardson