April 23, 2026
Colleen Claggett/for PhillyVoice
A.J. Brown #11 of the Philadelphia Eagles walks on the field during the Philadelphia Eagles training camp at the NovaCare Complex in Philadelphia, Pa. on Tuesday, June 3, 2025.
If you didn't believe then, you do now.
Eagles wide receiver A.J. Brown is getting traded.
"He's an Eagle," Howie Roseman recently said, and has said in some form or fashion whenever he's asked about the status of his perpetually unhappy wide receiver.
Well, guess what? He won't be soon enough.
Roseman didn't have to say it; his actions spoke louder.
The team's executive vice president of football operations made a predictable move up on Thursday night in the first round of the NFL Draft – but not for an offensive tackle. Not for the successor to Lane Johnson, which is a whole other story.
Roseman moved up by trading with the Cowboys to land USC wide receiver prospect Makai Lemon. That might remind some of Roseman taking another USC receiver, Nelson Agholor, in the first round of the 2015 NFL Draft.
But it should more remind folks of another former USC wideout – Lions star Amon-Ra St. Brown, the player that Lemon has drawn several comparisons to throughout the pre-draft process.
And with that move, Roseman officially signaled that Brown is as good as gone, after four of the most productive seasons ever for an Eagles wide receiver, including two Super Bowl trips and a championship ring – and also a lot of griping about the passing offense, a lot of taking to social media to air his grievances, and a lot of recent innuendo about his love for a team that plays way up in the Northeast, several hours from where he actually plays.
Brown will probably be dealt to the Patriots on or near June 1 to mitigate the cap hit, but the Eagles have already moved on — onto their newest explosive wideout, and onto, they hope, someone who can adapt to the new offense, flourish and help make up the production that Brown will take with him to Boston, or wherever.
The offense surely will have a different look, as Lemon projects as a silky smooth and versatile receiver who can excel in the slot and in a "Z" position that plays off the line of scrimmage. He and star receiver DeVonta Smith, the Eagles' new WR1, will surely move around quite a bit as new offensive coordinator Sean Mannion seeks mismatches and to exploit open spaces.
As for the big-bodied pure "X" receiver who can stretch the field and dismiss press-man coverage the way Brown has done with almost ease throughout his career, well, the Eagles don't exactly have someone like that.
New wide receiver Dontayvion Wicks, a 6-foot-1, 206-pound target, can line up there and do some damage, but A.J. Brown he's not. Wicks, who came over in a trade with Green Bay, should see more opportunities from Mannion, who also came from Green Bay.
The group of Smith, Lemon, Wicks, newcomer Marquise Brown, returning tight end Dallas Goedert and some others make up a good enough group to move the chains. The potential to be very good is there too, if Lemon makes a more seamless adjustment to his role than Agholor, who took a few years to get settled before eventually helping the Eagles win a Super Bowl.
It remains to be seen how this group settles in, and how Jalen Hurts will perform without his favorite downfield target.
But what's for certain now is that the Eagles and Brown are moving on – for better or worse.
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