Why the Eagles knew it was time to trade Brown
Mike Florio and Devin McCourty analyze the Eagles' decision to trade A.J. Brown to the Patriots and break down why the wide receiver's time was up in Philadelphia.
Video Transcript
He will be wearing number one in New England, just like his good friend at the time he was traded to Philadelphia, Jalen Hurts wears for the Eagles.
It'll be interesting to see if we ever get to the bottom of what went wrong between Hurts and Brown, because it seems like something did.
The Eagles did a poor job of covering up the existence of the friction.
They did a great job of concealing the root cause of the friction.
It never was entirely clear.
Now, it has kind of trickled out in the past six or seven months that there was internal frustration regarding the way that Jalen Hurts operates the offense.
The Derek Gunn reporting from last year I think was very illuminating, and it puts into the proper context the comments A.J.
Brown said from his locker after he had made some remarks on a video live stream video game and then some stuff on social media.
He talked about how the offense needs to be striving to get better all the time.
It's not good enough to just win a game in the middle of the regular season.
We have to be trying to get better all the time because eventually we're going to be in a single elimination setting where if we're not good enough, our season's over.
And that's exactly what happened against the 49ers with that much discussed four verticals play that they ran as they were down near the goal line to try to win the game.
So the belief, the concern, the suspicion that Jalen Hurts was running the offense his own way, that he wasn't executing the plays the way that the team expected, that he knows, this is the Derek Gunn reporting, he knows there's nothing they can do about it because of the way his contract's structured and the cap hits that would result from trading him.
And that may or may not have been the cause of the problem.
I don't know, but it was clear the ship had sailed for the Eagles and A.J.
Brown.
And I'm impressed that the Eagles got a first-round pick, even though it's not until 2028, and we'll talk about how Howie Roseman has tried to reconcile and justify that.
When you consider the money that they owed him, the cap charges they would have dealt with if they did this next year, because I know somebody with another team that was convinced they had to do this deal this year.
If they wait till next year, it's going to create cap Armageddon for the Eagles.
But all the things considered, they didn't have any real leverage.
There was no other team, and the Eagles weren't going to keep him.
To get a first-round pick in 2028 is a coup under those circumstances.
Yeah, I mean, especially because I know, like, that's the thing, right?
You hear first-round draft pick, and you have to start to think, all right, well, that first-round draft pick that's coming from New England, well, they're going to be pretty good.
But still, if you get a late first-round draft pick for a guy that you know you have to trade and the whole league knows you have to trade, you'll still take that.
You'll take the opportunity to turn that first-round draft pick into maybe a better first-round draft pick when you pair it with another pick.
So I agree.
I think them getting a first-round draft pick, which was rumored that they maybe weren't going to get a first-round draft pick because every team knew that they had to trade A.J.
Brown.
And I think for the Eagles, you're a good football team.
You have the pieces.
You were Super Bowl champions not so long ago.
How do you move on past this so we can refocus on our team and going to win?
Because sometimes it doesn't matter the amount of talent you have on a team when you're constantly battling yourself week in and week out, depending on how the game flows.
You know the only talk is going to be what happened on your sideline, who yelled at this coach, what player yelled at this player.
Did these two players talk while they were on the sideline?
Did they not talk?
A.J.
Brown's reading a book.
Like, you've had all of these things that have been talked about other than the actual football game.
At some point, you're sitting there saying, well, if we take that away, how much more can we focus on football and get better and give ourselves a chance to win?
So I think for them, yes, the compensation and what you give.
But I think also getting A.J.
Brown out of that building and trying to move forward with Lemon, with Devontae Smith now becoming your number one guy, I think that means more to this Eagles team and them trying to go win than anything because it now gives you opportunity kind of for that fresh start.
And maybe it frees Jalen Hurts up a little bit where he's not having to give answers to the A.J.
Brown saga over and over again.
And maybe he can get back to just being himself and going out there and playing.
Well, and we knew this was coming in part.
You know, we set aside the friction, set aside the idea that it was just time for the relationship to end.
When they add Hollywood Brown, when they add Elijah Moore, when they trade for Dontavion Wicks, when they trade up to draft Makai Lemon in round one, you know where this thing is going.
And it's amazing to me that it was so casually open.
It got to the point, Devin, where players were being asked about it.
In New England, Kevin Byard and Romeo Dobbs, they're asked about this hypothetical arrival of A.J.
Brown, and they talk about it like it's no big deal.
I mean, they gave answers that I never would have envisioned.
I don't know if we did this on a day you were on the show.
It's been a few weeks since we had the Byard and Dobbs sound.
But I remember thinking, how would this have flown with Bill Belichick?
With Kevin Byard and Romeo Dobbs talking openly about how a guy who hasn't even been acquired by the team yet is going to adjust and impact the Patriots in his first year.
You had Eagles players like Jalen Hurts and Saquon Barkley talking about A.J.
Brown like he was already gone.
Like, this was so out in the open, and boom, it happens right away.
As we said earlier, the Patriots want to get him up there and get to work, and you saw the video.
He's already there.
Here's what A.J.
Brown said.
Not A.J.
Brown.
Here's what Howie Roseman said aboutThe AJ Brown trade, justifying getting a 2028, not '27, not '26 first round pick.
Howie said, "For us to take a 2026 pick, and that's a late first round pick, and obviously you also have to deal with the cap consequences that come with making a trade prior to June 1, it made sense for us to look at future picks.
We've always been in the mindset of a pick is a pick.
A first round pick is a first round pick.
Doesn't matter.
Teams are still going to be playing football in 2028."
Now, look, I understand why you don't insist on doing the deal now.
It would've been the 31st overall pick.
The thinking is this year's draft class, once you get past the first several guys, it's not great, and you're gonna take this massive cap charge if you trade him before June 1.
No need to insist on a 2026 first round pick.
'27, that's a different story.
I think they wanted '27.
I think they were fishing for someone to show up and offer a 2027 first round pick, and I think they had a deal with the Patriots that went like this: "All right.
We understand this is the, the package you'll give us, and you understand that we're looking for something more, and if we get something more, we'll take it.
No hard feelings."
And I think the Patriots are fine with it, 'cause the Patriots are like, "These guys ain't getting nothing else.
AJ Brown isn't gonna play for anyone else.
So go ahead.
Go ahead.
Try to get something better for a guy that doesn't wanna go play for any other team but the Patriots and Mike Vrabel."
And so, this idea that a 2028 pick is the same, it's not the same.
It's not, because you lose the year of having the guy.
We don't know how good or bad the 2028 draft class is gonna be, and anybody who acts like they know now is full of crap.
It's too early to know what guys who aren't gonna be drafted until 2028 are going to be.
A year ago, no one would've expected Fernando Mendoza to be the top pick in the draft.
A year before Joe Burrow was the top pick in the draft, nobody would've expected Joe Burrow to be the top pick in the draft.
We do not know.
I think the reality is they wanted the 2027 first round pick.
They ultimately took the '28 because they had no other choice.
They got a great return for a guy that they were in a position, Devin, that they had to move on from.
Yeah, and, and remember, and I still think AJ Brow- AJ Brown's gonna be a good player for the Patriots.
He gonna be productive.
But towards the end of that Eagles season, and again, coaches and GMs, they'll turn on the film and they'll have their own evaluations, but it, it wasn't good.
You look down the stretch, it's not like you were watching this guy just out there dominating every play.
It's not like we're watching where Myles Garrett comes off a 23-sack season.
So for AJ Brown, I think that started to be some of the question marks too.
Like, hey, he's not as open as he once was.
This isn't a guy creating separation.
You started to hear that talked about a lot.
So I do think for other teams, as you sat there and you started to go through, okay, what do we wanna do?
Well, how do we feel about our receiver room?
AJ Brown's available, but this is what we might have to give up, it started to make less and less sense, especially when you throw in the fact of we're gonna also have to try to convince this guy that this is a place for him, and if it ends up not being a place for him, we know he's gonna be vocal about it.
We know it's gonna create a stir in our locker room.
So I do think the Patriots sat there and they were like, "This makes sense for us because for one, we know this guy personally.
He wants to be here, and we have an offensive coordinator that we think and believe is going to design this offense in a way that Romeo Doubs is gonna get his plays, AJ Brown's gonna get his plays, the two running backs, Rhamondre Stevenson and TreVeyon Henderson, they're gonna have their plays.
We're also gonna still have Hunter Henry at the tight end position have his plays."
So I think AJ knows that too.
Going to New England isn't this where I'm gonna be the backside X and I'm gonna get, you know, 20, 25 balls thrown at me a game.
It's gonna be a plan, and how I'm gonna be implemented is gonna be with the things that I do best.
I'm gonna get some catch-and-run opportunities.
It's not gonna be only deep balls down the sideline.
So I think it's the perfect fit, and that's why it made sense for the draft compensation and all those things because it, it just wasn't as good as it once was where even, you know, I would say two years ago, it didn't matter what route AJ Brown ran.
He was always gonna be open.
He was gonna be physical enough to throw you out of the way.
He's gonna catch it and go, where we didn't see that same guy in the Eagles uniform last year.
But I do think the guy we see this year in that number one jersey for the Patriots is gonna be very productive in how they use him in that offense.
And Devin, remember, the Eagles were entertaining the possibility of trading AJ Brown back in March.
Because Jalen Phillips signed with the Panthers and the Eagles didn't go out and make a corresponding big money move in free agency, they could've taken the full $40 million cap charge this year if they wanted to with AJ Brown.
The Rams were interested.
The Rams were scared off by some stuff in the medicals as it relates to a knee, and it just makes you wonder, is the guy physically what he's been, and are we moving toward the period where it starts to go?
How many years are you gonna get?
There was some reporting about the ultimate decision of the Ravens not to trade for Max Crosby based upon the physical that was rooted in the idea that we only think we're gonna get a couple of years out of him.
I think the Patriots would be happy to get two years out of AJ Brown.
Yeah.
Two years of significant performance out of AJ Brown.
But that is part of this.
How close is he to the decline?
And, we'll find out
