The worst-kept secret in recent Boston sports history has “officially” been revealed: the Patriots have acquired A.J. Brown from the Philadelphia Eagles in exchange for a 2028 first-round pick and a 2027 fifth-rounder that is the better of the two New England has.
The Pats and Brown have been linked from the day Mike Vrabel assumed control in New England. Their past experience and success together, combined with the Pats' never-ending quest to find that “dude" at receiver, made it an easy talker two Januarys ago, even if the Eagles' previous financial commitment made a trade in 2025 a non-starter.
However, faced with mounting salary cap concerns and, perhaps just as important, a player who no longer wanted to play with quarterback Jalen Hurts, the Eagles made Brown available, and Vrabel and company jumped at the opportunity. That we had to wait for it because of some of these nonsensical cap dates (why is it that you can designate a player as a post-June 1 cut and do that as soon as the offseason begins, but can’t do the same with a trade?) led to updates weekly, to the chagrin of some (you know who you are).
But the league viewed this as a fait accompli dating back to the scouting combine. I wrote then that at least a half-dozen teams were operating as if Brown would be in Foxborough before the start of the 2026-27 season. They were right. The Eagles traded for Dontayvion Wicks, signed Hollywood Brown and drafted Makai Lemon in the first round.
Meanwhile, the Pats released Stefon Diggs - a classic one-and-done scenario - and replaced him with the younger Romeo Doubs. But that was that. New England didn’t select a wideout in the draft, setting the stage for this move.
Brown has gone over the 1,000-yard mark in six of seven seasons in the NFL, exploding onto the scene under Vrabel in Tennessee and then becoming a top-5 receiver in the league during his first two years in Philadelphia. The numbers were undeniable:
2022: 88 catches, 1,496 yards, 17 YPC, 11 TDs
2023: 106 catches, 1,459 yards, 13.7 YPC, 7 TDs
His stats have declined in each of the last two campaigns as the Eagles' passing offense sputtered behind the uneven play of Hurts. Yes, there was a Super Bowl title in there, but Brown’s displeasure bubbled to the surface a number of times, from cryptic social media posts to book-reading on the sidelines to just laying it out there for all to hear, like in mid-November of this past year.
“It's not about, 'I don't care about winning, all I care about is stats.' No. It's been week after week, sometimes we're not doing our job on offense,” he said after a 10-7 win over the Packers. “You can't keep slapping a Band-Aid over that and expect to win late in the year and think you're going to go to that at the end of the year. It's not going to f---ing happen."
There’s also lingering concern about