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In what is disastrous news for fantasy football owners, the New England Patriots have placed star wide receiver AJ Brown on injured reserve, designated to return. This comes after he suffered a high-ankle sprain in the team’s Wednesday night loss to the Seattle Seahawks. He will now miss at least the next four games.
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Sources: Patriots are placing wide receiver AJ Brown on injured reserve due to his high ankle sprain, sidelining him for a minimum of four games. pic.twitter.com/hzOvh8T4n7
– Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) September 11, 2026
The injury happened after a poor throw by quarterback Drake Maye caused Brown to attempt to fall to the ground while trying to make a catch, with a defender behind him landing on the aforementioned ankle. You can make the argument that this is the best-case scenario for fantasy owners. This way, they won’t rush him back, and he’ll be fully healthy and ready to go once they bring him back. Quite frankly, we don’t want to hear it right now.
Fantasy Impact
WR AJ Brown, New England Patriots
What a disappointing way to start the season. Brown was our WR5 overall in our draft rankings, so we had massively high hopes for him. Now we will be without the start wide receiver until at least October.
This isn’t news that anyone wanted to see. Fantasy owners will now have to adjust and find a new option to plug into their lineup for the next month. Hopefully, he is ready to return after the four weeks are up, and this doesn’t linger any longer.
QB Drake Maye, New England Patriots
Maye finished just one vote shy of winning MVP last season with one of the worst WR corps in the league, and for the next four weeks, those wide receivers will be even worse than they were in 2025. With Brown gone, he doesn’t even have a wideout of the caliber of Stefon Diggs like he did last season.
This could end up being a significant hit to Maye’s fantasy value. We saw him struggle mightily on Wednesday night after Brown exited the game. All we can do now is hope that was the product of a bad matchup and that Maye can overcome his lack of weapons over this stretch of games without Brown on the outside.
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WR Romeo Doubs, New England Patriots
There really isn’t a next man up in the Patriots WR corps. Doubs showed in Week 1 that he flat-out isn’t very good, and we have no reason to believe that he will be the clear top option over Mack Hollins or Pop Douglas, other than the ridiculous contract the Patriots gave him.
If anything, it’s Hunter Henry who we would be upgrading with Brown lost. However, he now has to deal with stud rookie Eli Raridon, who caught the Pats’ first touchdown of the season. Come to think of it, the Patriots sure could use a wide receiver like Kayshon Boutte, who is both better and much cheaper than Doubs.
We wouldn’t advise picking up anybody from this WR corps despite Brown’s absence of Brown. Fantasy owners are just going to have to figure it out and look elsewhere on the waiver wire.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com/onsi/fantasy as Awful Injury Update On AJ Brown Could Damage Drake Maye’s Fantasy Football Value.
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This story was originally published September 11, 2026 at 10:10 AM.