Eagles finally trade A.J. Brown to Patriots – NBC Sports Philadelphia

After months of speculation, the Eagles finally traded A.J. Brown to the Patriots on Monday afternoon.

In the trade, the Eagles are shipping Brown to the Pats for a 2028 first-round pick and a 2027 fifth-round pick, the team announced. The deal is pending a physical.

Brown will reunite with his former coach Mike Vrabel in New England. While there were other teams interested in Brown at times this offseason, the Patriots always seemed like the most logical landing spot. The Eagles are practicing against the Patriots in Foxborough this summer.

This trade caps an incredibly productive four-year run with Brown in Philadelphia that ended with frustration before an eventual trade. While general manager Howie Roseman said all offseason that the Eagles were looking to improve and “you don’t do that by subtracting,” it was obvious the Eagles were listening to offers and preparing for life after Brown.

Roseman just kept saying, “A.J. Brown is an Eagle” until he wasn’t anymore. Roseman held firm for a while before agreeing to compensation.

By trading Brown now — after June 1 — the Eagles are splitting up Brown’s dead cap figure over this season and next. According to OverTheCap, the Eagles will save $7.04 million in cap space in 2026, leaving $16.4 million in dead money. The Eagles will have over $27 million in dead cap space for Brown next season. But trading Brown after June 1 was clearly the more palatable option and that’s what ultimately happened.

“I don’t think you can go into any conversation with anyone and just shoot things down without hearing what they have to say, because you never know,” Roseman said ahead of the NFL Combine. “You never know if someone is going to give you something that you didn’t anticipate and if you won’t even have the conversation, I don’t think you’re necessarily doing your job or really servicing the team that you’re with. You never know what someone’s willing to do.”

During OTAs last week, Jalen Hurts didn’t try to avoid the situation. In fact, he spoke about Brown in the past tense.

“I think for us, we’re focused on learning the offense,” Hurts said. “It really doesn’t change in terms of our approach to improve. There’s a if. Obviously, it’s been a lingering thing. But nothing can replace all the greatness that we achieved together.”

Brown, 28, made two Pro Bowls in his first two years with the Eagles and helped the team get to two Super Bowls, winning Super Bowl LIX to cap off the 2024 season.

But despite having over 5,000 receiving yards and 32 touchdowns in his four years in Philadelphia, Brown was visibly frustrated during the 2025 season and it showed on the field. He had a good season in 2025 but wore his frustration outwardly more and more.

Back in November, Brown expressed those frustrations publicly on a Twitch stream with streamer JankyRondo, saying “it’s a s— show” about his situation. Later that week, Brown spoke to reporters at the Jefferson Health Training Complex to further explain his frustration.

“It’s not that I don’t care about winning, all I care about is stats, no,” Brown said. “It’s been week after week sometimes we’re not contributing, we’re not doing our job on offense. You can’t just keep slapping a Band-Aid over that if you expect to win later in the year. You think you’re just going to go to it at the end of the year? It’s not going to f—ing happen. It’s not going to happen. It’s not going to happen.

“Last year, what it was, thank you for the ring, but it’s a new season. They adapted. We have to adapt and we have to continue to get better and find new ways. That’s where the frustration comes in. Because it’s not about winning, you guys. I want to win, yes. I want to help contribute as well. Do our thing on offense as well. I think that’s fair.”

Of course, Brown wasn’t wrong. The Eagles’ offense in 2025 wasn’t good enough and the team moved on from offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo after the season, eventually hiring 33-year-old Sean Mannion to take over and bring a new scheme to Philly.

Brown’s career as an Eagle ended in a wild-card round loss to the 49ers in a game where he dropped three passes and got into a sideline spat with head coach Nick Sirianni. Brown didn’t speak to reporters after the loss but walked around the locker room, dapping up many of his teammates before exiting the home locker room at the Linc for the final time.

But there were incredible highs for Brown during his four seasons in Philadelphia, where he established himself as one of the best receivers in the NFL. The Eagles acquired Brown on draft night in 2022, giving up their first-round pick (No. 18) and a third-round pick to the Tennessee Titans. The Eagles immediately signed Brown to a four-year, $100 million contract, which quickly became a bargain.

In his first two seasons with the Eagles, Brown had 1,496 receiving yards in 2022 and 1,456 receiving yards in 2023 and was named a Pro Bowler in both seasons. Those are the two best single seasons in receiving yards in franchise history. Brown surpassed Mike Quick’s record of 1,409 set back in 1983.

After playing just four years in Philadelphia, Brown ranks ninth on the franchise’s all-time receiving yards list with 5,034 yards. He finished his Eagles career with 339 receptions for 5,034 yards and 32 touchdowns; he also had 28/334/3 in eight playoff games.

Right behind him on the Eagles’ all-time receiving list? DeVonta Smith. Brown’s former teammate has 5,019 yards in his five-year NFL career and will now take over the responsibility of being the Eagles’ No. 1 wideout. 

While the Eagles will clearly miss Brown, there’s a ton of internal optimism about Smith’s ability to be a true WR1 going forward. And in this offseason, the Eagles drafted Makai Lemon with the No. 20 overall pick and also brought in veterans Dontayvion Wicks and Hollywood Brown to bolster their depth with this massive trade seeming inevitable.