A.J. Brown is arguably the best wide receiver in Eagles history, despite having only played in Philadelphia for four seasons. He has averaged 85 catches, 1,259 yards and 8 TDs per season ever since Howie Roseman swung a draft-day trade for him in 2022.

The Eagles went from starting Jalen Reagor in 2021 to starting Brown in 2022, a drastic upgrade that elevated the Eagles' offense to the next level, instantly making them legitimate Super Bowl contenders.

During Brown's four seasons in Philly, the Eagles had a 47-15 regular season record in games Brown played in, plus a 6-2 record in the playoffs. He has truly been an outstanding franchise-changing type of player.

And yet, it feels a whole lot like Brown will be traded this offseason, largely because it is clear that he is unhappy here and would rather be somewhere else.

Brown has had a weird couple of seasons

During the 2024 season, Brandon Graham let slip that the relationship between Brown and Jalen Hurts had soured a bit.

"I don't know the whole story, but I know that 1 is trying," Graham said during an interview on WIP. "11 could be a little better with how he responds to things. They were friends, but things have changed and I understand that because life happens. But the business side, we got to make sure we don't let the personal get in the way of the business."

That interview came after a win over the Panthers during which the passing attack struggled. When asked after the game what the offense could improve upon, Brown said, "Passing."

Ultimately, whatever was going on between Hurts and Brown didn't matter enough, because the Eagles would go on to win the Super Bowl.

The following season in 2025, Brown made his frustrations clear. 

After a Week 4 game in Tampa during which he only had 2 catches for 7 yards, Brown tweeted a cryptic bible verse that he later deleted.

A week later PhillyVoice reported that Brown, Hurts and Saquon Barkley had a positive hours-long meeting. Hurts and Barkley confirmed that the meeting happened, but Brown oddly denied it.

Soon after that, Brown made alarming comments while playing video games on Twitch with someone named "Janky Rondo," saying that his family was good, but everything else was a "s***show." He also urged fantasy football owners who had him on their rosters to trade him. When asked about his comments on Twitch, an unapologetic Brown said that he was upset with the offense as a whole.

After Brown dropped a crucial pass in the Wild Card Round against the 49ers and was slow to get off the field before an ensuing Eagles punt, he had a sideline dustup with Nick Sirianni, who was imploring him to get off of the field more quickly.

Postgame, as media was entering the locker room to conduct postgame interviews, Brown hugged a few teammates before making a quick exit, opting not to speak to the media, just as he hadn't done for the prior couple of months.

None of the above "incidents" or whatever you'd call them are all that bad on their own, but when you add them up and combine them with Brown's down season statistically and his generally joyless play, it's not hard for even the casual follower of the team to discern that he wasn't happy.

Can the Eagles trade Brown, purely from a financial perspective?

We covered this is detail last week, but yes, they can. The Cliff's Notes:

• Brown is scheduled to count for $23,393,497 on the Eagles' cap this season.

• If he is traded this offseason before June 1, Brown would instead count for $43,515,106 on the Eagles' cap in "dead money." The dead cap charge would still be $43,515,106 if he's traded after June 1, but $27,161,609 of it would count toward the 2027 cap.

• There would be major savings in 2027, 2028, and 2029, when he is scheduled to count for $133,121,609 on the cap during those three seasons combined. That's over $44 million per season. That's all gone if they were to trade him now. 

• The Eagles would also save $113 million in cash payouts to Brown if he had otherwise played out his contract in full, including $29 million in 2026. That is money that can go toward signing young star defensive players like Quinyon Mitchell, Cooper DeJean, Jalen Carter, Jordan Davis, Jalyx Hunt, Nolan Smith, etc.

• As noted within our look at the financials of trading Brown, the Eagles are always among the NFL's leaders in dead money, and will be for the foreseeable future. It is just how they structure contracts. In other words, they are much less concerned about dead money than fans and most media.

But would they trade him?

Last Tuesday, Roseman was asked if he was open to trading Brown.

"It is hard to find great players in the NFL and A.J.'s a great player," Roseman said. "I think from my perspective, that's what we're going out and looking for when we go out here in free agency and in the draft is trying to find great players who love football, and he's that guy. I think that would be my answer."

Some took that to mean that Brown wasn't going anywhere. Of course, Roseman was even more staunchly in Carson Wentz's corner during his post-mortem press conference following the 2020 season. 

"I don't think it's a secret that we moved up for him because of what we thought about him as a person, as a player," Roseman said. "We gave him that extension because of the same things. And so, when you have players like that, they are like fingers on your hand. You can't even imagine that they are not part of you; that they are not here. That's how we feel about Carson."

Wentz was then traded 45 days later.

In the past five years alone, the Eagles have taken big dead money hits on three players they have traded.

• Carson Wentz (2021, dead money hit of $33,820,608): At the time the Eagles traded Wentz, it was the biggest dead money hit the NFL had ever seen, and by a wide margin. He counted for a little more than 18.5 percent of the Eagles' cap that season.

A lot of people thought it would simply be impossible to deal him financially, like former Packers executive Andrew Brandt, who wrote the following  about a month before Wentz was traded to the Colts:

Trade Wentz? I say no. Apologies to all the fantasy football general managers already having traded Wentz to the Colts. Not happening. First, any potential trade would have to happen before the third day of the 2021 league year when 1) a $10 million roster bonus comes due to Wentz and 2) $15 million of Wentz’s 2022 salary becomes fully guaranteed. With the way Wentz has been playing, good luck with that. But, you ask, what if Wentz is willing to reduce/restructure his contract to fit into a new team’s framework? Well, that may help the new team; it does nothing for the Eagles. As I have answered dozens of times on Twitter: The problem with a Wentz trade is not so much for the acquiring team; it is for the trading team (the Eagles). Were the Eagles to somehow find a trade partner for Wentz, they would incur a dead money cap charge of $34 million. This would be the largest cap allocation for a player not on the roster in NFL history in a year where 1) the cap number will be below the present $198 million and 2) the Eagles have current cap commitments of over $250 million.

But, Wentz didn't want to be an Eagle, so Roseman sent him to Indianapolis for what would eventually turn out to be a third-round pick in 2021 and a first-round pick in 2022. (Those picks were then used to acquire a bunch of players who would help them win a Super Bowl.)

• Haason Reddick (2024, dead money hit of $21,515,000): Reddick didn't want to be an Eagle either, so the Eagles sent him to the Jets for what would eventually be a pick at the top of third round in the 2026 draft. 

• Bryce Huff (2025, dead money hit of $21,549,412): Unlike Wentz and Reddick, Huff was never a good player for the Eagles, but he too wanted out and was dealt away. The mechanics of Huff's trade were a little different, in that he was traded after June 1, so he counted for $4,934,853 on the 2025 cap, and will count for $16,614,559 on the 2026 cap.

Anyway, we're going a long way to point out that Roseman will not keep a player on the roster simply for cap purposes if that player doesn't want to play for the team or has become a poor fit.

If that's the case with Brown — and by all indications, it is — you can be certain that the possibility of a trade is in play.

Brown's value is only going to decrease with each passing year

That's a rather obvious statement, but let's unpack it a bit.

Brown will turn 29 in June. In the last 10 NFL seasons, there have been 42 instances of a player 29 years of age or older having a 1,000-yard season. And actually, on three of those occasions the player led the league in receiving:

1. Tyreek Hill, 1,799 yards, 2023
2. Julio Jones, 1,677 yards, 2018
3. Antonio Brown, 1,533 yards, 2017

All three of those guys were 29 when they accomplished that feat. Here's a look at how many 1000-yard seasons there were the last 10 seasons, by age:

As you can see, it gets lower and lower every year, because of course it does. But also, when other GMs around the league are considering trading for a player like Brown, "He's turning 29" just doesn't sound as scary as, "He's turning 30." I mean, right?

Brown's value around the league is likely to drop substantially from this offseason to next offseason, especially if his numbers aren't better than what they were in 2025. You can still get a good return for him now, but probably not next year.

What could the Eagles reasonably get in return if they do trade Brown?

The closest comp to Brown in terms of recently traded receivers is DK Metcalf, who was traded from the Seahawks to the Steelers last offseason, more or less for a second-round pick:

As noted above, Brown has averaged 85 catches, 1,259 yards and 8 TDs over his four seasons with the Eagles. Prior to the trade Metcalf had averaged 74 catches for 1,030 yards and 8 TDs over his last four years. When Metcalf was traded, he was 1.5 years younger than Brown is now.

A second-round pick feels like the floor on an expected return.

In recent years, when the Eagles have traded players, conditions existed for the Eagles to get a higher pick in return if statistical and/or play-time benchmarks were met. We had trackers for each of them:

• Carson Wentz
• Jalen Reagor
• Haason Reddick
• Bryce Huff

Wentz reached his benchmarks, the other three did not. I think Roseman could sell a team on a second-round pick that can become a first-round pick if Brown has something like 75 catches for 1,200 yards and 8 TDs. That feels like a Howie deal.

And there are no shortage of contending teams who can use a player like him. From a pure roster perspective, AFC teams that come to mind include the Bills, Patriots, Ravens, Broncos, and Chargers.

So will they trade him?

Obviously, the Eagles would have to have a plan to replace Brown in some reasonable way, but yes, I believe they will trade him.

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