The Tennessee Titans' decision to trade star wide receiver AJ Brown to the Philadelphia Eagles last week sent shockwaves through the NFL.

General manager Jon Robinson and head coach Mike Vrabel spent the last several weeks telling anyone who would listen that the team wasn't planning on trading AJ Brown.

So when the report came on draft night that Tennessee was sending Brown to Philly in exchange for draft picks, it felt like a move that came out of nowhere.

Brown told ESPN after the trade that the Titans never gave him a serious offer.

"This wasn't my fault," said Brown to ESPN. "I wanted to stay, but the deal they offered was a low offer. The deal they offered wasn't even $20 million a year."

Brown's comments made it seem like Tennessee was never serious about keeping the talented wide receiver in Nashville. Those comments also made Robinson and Vrabel look bad for their comments about not dealing the former Ole Miss standout.

In reality, it appears that Robinson and Vrabel were being truthful. They never intended to trade Brown. And they were committed to doing whatever it took to keep Brown in a Titans' uniform.

Brown, however, never gave the Titans a chance. And that was evidenced by some comments on Tuesday that Teresa Walker, who covers the Titans for the Associated Press, made during an appearance on 104.5 The Zone's JMart and Ramon. 

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"It feels like AJ Brown wanted a chance to play with Jalen Hurts and get paid," said Walker. "The Titans never had a chance really to negotiate in this whole situation. For the Titans fans who are still a little salty, guess what, sometimes, we've seen it a lot in the NBA, if a player refuses to negotiate and be in the same ballpark….and you can't really get a deal done, the Titans made chicken salad out of a [tough] situation."

"From what I understand, they were told that AJ wasn't going to step foot on the field until he got a new deal," explained Walker.

"They were told AJ Brown wanted to be around $25 million, and that's about what he got from Philadelphia. The Titans put together a plan. They sent an offer. And when they get a counter — the offer sent to AJ Brown was around $40 million guaranteed — what they got back went the other direction. The guaranteed money was almost double what the Titans offered."

Here's what this looks like:

Brown wanted to go to Philly, he never wanted to stay in Nashville. He knew that when his camp sent back a counter offer. Brown's representation sent back a ridiculous counter so the Titans would be forced into a tough situation. The Brown camp essentially made this an untenable situation with the Titans.

The Eagles ended up giving Brown $57 million guaranteed, which is at least in the same ballpark as the $40 million guaranteed that was included in the opening offer from Tennessee.

If Brown had negotiated with the Titans, he probably could've received a deal close to what Philly gave him. The Titans, however, never got a chance to go down that road with Brown.

While it appears that Brown had his eyes on Philly the entire time, he also doesn't want to be viewed as a bad guy in Nashville. That's why he immediately spoke with ESPN on the record and put the offer numbers out there — he wanted to control the narrative.

Brown used his leverage and he got the money he wanted from the team he wanted to play with. That's the business side of football and he played his hand well.

As for the Titans' side of things, I don't think anything about this situation is on them. There's nothing they could've done differently — aside from trading for Jalen Hurts and moving on from Ryan Tannehill (which obviously was never a realistic scenario for Tennessee) — that could've changed this outcome.

The Titans made the best of a tough situation. It may not be ideal, but it's the only choice Tennessee had and that's because of AJ Brown and no one else.

Featured image via Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports