Does it make sense for Patriots to trade for A.J. Brown?
Yahoo Sports Daily hosts Caroline Fenton and Jason Fitz are joined by Tom Curran, New England Patriots insider with NBC Sports Boston, to discuss whether the Patriots should trade for A.J. Brown. Watch the full episode of Yahoo Sports Daily on YouTube or YahooSports.TV .
Video Transcript
Nbc Sports Boston tweets out, "The Eagles have made it clear they're open to receiving calls on AJ Brown."
Now Phil Perry shared his Patriots related NFL combine on Brown, Max Crosby, other trades.
To break some of this down now, Tom Curran joins us, longtime Patriots insider for NBC Sports Boston.
Tom, we appreciate your time on this.
What are you hearing at this point with that We all wanna put Vrabel and AJ Brown back together, so how likely does that seem to you?
It seems as if the interest would be there.
It seems as if the need is there.
What's interesting is dealing with the cap implications that the Philadelphia Eagles are dealing with.
So if the Eagles trade him before June 1st, they take a $43 million dead cap hit.
It's paying $43 million against your cap to not have a player play for you.
That's obscene.
That can't happen.
So whatever happens with AJ Brown is probably gonna have to either be consummated after June 1st, or kind of just earmarked for being made official after June 1st.
So that's one aspect of it.
The other aspect is the Patriots have to wrestle with AJ Brown.
You're gonna give up draft pick or picks, which will be certainly third or above, and then you're dealing with a manageable contract, but you're giving something up to bring somebody in depending on the same way you're paying Stephon Diggs.
If you wanna continue with Diggs, who also has his own financial implications coming up March six- excuse me, 13th, when the Patriots have to give him the $6 million, roster bonus to, to keep him here this year.
So there's some wide out conversations to be had for the Patriots.
And, and look, w- a post June 1st move is not unheard of.
We've seen receivers moved closer to training camp.
It's at least a little bit easier to swallow knowing that there is that existing relationship with Mike Vrabel and AJ Brown.
They know each other.
Mike Vrabel knows how he wants to work, and works within the confines of that offense.
But you bring up what you would have to give up in order to trade for AJ Brown.
What have you heard?
What do you think a trade package would look like to acquire AJ Brown?
And do you think the Patriots would be willing to give up that kind of capital?
I haven't really heard anything about compensation.
Just the things that come from Philadelphia or what the intimations are that they can't guarantee that he'll be back.
So if they're listening for offers for a, a number one receiver, who regardless of the situation with Jalen Hurts, the offensive coordinator last year did not have a statistically good year as Stephon Diggs did.
How much are you gonna give up?
You gonna give up a two?
You gonna give up a first overall pick?
your first rounder?
That's a lot-
