Eagles End Year-Long Rumor, Trade A.J. Brown to Patriots

It’s June, and finally it has become the time when the Eagles can move on from A.J. Brown.

The Philadelphia Eagles have traded the former All-Pro wide receiver to the New England Patriots in exchange for a 2028 first-round pick and a 2027 fifth-round pick. The deal is still pending a successful physical from Brown, and New England will take over the remainder of Brown’s four-year, $113 million deal that was originally signed with the Eagles.

BREAKING: The #Eagles have traded A.J. Brown to the #Patriots for a 2028 first-round draft pick and a 2027 fifth-round pick.

It’s officially happened. pic.twitter.com/1FyGbD7nb3

— Philly Sports Reports (@PhlySprtsReprts) June 1, 2026

This trade is a long time coming for both teams, as rumors of Brown wanting out of Philadelphia have been in the news since last September, when the Eagles offense got off to a rough start to the 2025 season. That rough start turned into one of the worst offenses in the NFL last season, and tension grew among Brown, the Eagles, Jalen Hurts, and former offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo.

Eagles general manager Howie Roseman and Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni have both given the same answer all offseason long on whether or not the team would be trading Brown.

“My answer to any question on A.J. Brown is, ‘A.J. Brown is a member of the Eagles,'” Roseman said back in March following the NFL’s owners meetings media. “From my perspective, anything you ask me about A.J. Brown, I’m going to go right back to that answer. But I understand the interest. I put on the TV, and I see that there’s interest. But my answer is A.J. Brown’s a member of the roster.”

Well, Brown is no longer a member of the Eagles and is moving even more northeast, to Beantown. New England has, for a long time, made sense as a landing spot for Brown as his former coach when he was with the Tennessee Titans, Mike Vrabel, who on multiple occasions has expressed how he was against the Titans trading Brown to the Eagles back in 2022.

However, Vrabel has been at the center of the offseason news cycle this year, as reports, photos, and videos have come out over the past couple of months that he and former ESPN and The Athletic NFL Insider Dianna Russini were reportedly involved in an alleged affair for the past few years.

Russini has been at the forefront of the “Brown to New England” rumors that began during the 2025 regular season and continued those rumors up until the news came out about her and Vrabel’s affair. Other insiders, like the Adam Schefter’s of the world, have reported that a trade between the Eagles and Patriots for Brown was more than guaranteed to happen once June 1st came, and now those rumors are over.

With New England still in need of a No. 1 wide receiver following the non-resigning of Stefon Diggs and the only significant move of Romeo Doubs in free agency, Brown instantly fills that void, pairing up with last season’s MVP runner-up and brand-new Patriots franchise quarterback Drake Maye.

The Eagles now have two first-round picks in the 2028 Draft and recoup an extra fifth-round pick in next year’s draft. They’re already heading into the 2027 Draft without a third-round pick after sending that along with a third from this year’s draft to Minnesota in the Jonathan Greenard deal.

The reason the trade occurred post-June 1, rather than right when the new league year started back in March, was due to the financial situation with Brown’s contract. If Brown had been traded before June 1, then the $43 million in bonus proration that is still tied to his current deal would become dead money on the Eagles’ 2026 salary cap, essentially creating $43 million that the Eagles can’t spend.

With the deal being after June 1, the Eagles can spread that dead cap money over the next two seasons, with only $16 million counting towards the 2026 cap and the other $27 million towards the following year.

Many have assumed that a deal with Brown was picking up steam since the end of the Eagles’ season, when the team lost to the 49ers in the playoffs, but the true wake-up call came when the Eagles drafted wide receiver Makai Lemon in the first round of the 2026 NFL Draft back in April.

Lemon was considered a steal of a prospect once he fell into the twenties of the draft, and while Rosmean has assured that this pick was seen more as a move to get a player they loved at a have-to-take-him spot, the writing was on the wall.

“We just felt like this was a player that we wanted to go up and get,” Roseman said during his post-draft presser. “Just based on where our board was at that time, where we were picking, it just felt like it made a lot of sense based on our board. Obviously, when you have a player that you like that’s ranked higher on your board than where you’re picking, you think at every pick that he’s gonna be selected. That’s just the way the draft is; you think everyone’s thinking the way that you are, and so certainly for us, we didn’t want to sit on our hands. We wanted to go get him, and so that’s why we made a trade.”

The big question was really if Lemon was coming in to replace Brown, and while they’re not the same type of player, essentially that move, along with the trade of Dontayvion Wicks and free agent acquisitions of Hollywood Marquise Brown and Elijah Moore, gave you enough of a sense that Brown was as good as gone.

The biggest question that will likely continue to be asked by the media and fans going forward is whether or not Hurts will be able to function as a pro without Brown.

Hurts and Brown have a special relationship. The two have been friends since they were in college, and that chemistry showed on the field right away. During their first season together, the duo posted their best offensive seasons as pros en route to a Super Bowl, and every year they’ve played together, Brown had recorded over 1,000 yards receiving and seven touchdowns.

However, this past season, during their struggles, Brown, at times without actually blaming him, would post subliminal messages to social media and make comments during media that the Eagles’ offensive struggles were Hurts’ fault. This caused reports that the two’s relationship deteriorated, with the most recent instance being that Hurts did not attend Brown wedding last month, but other players did.

“Nothing’s changed since we last spoke at the end of the season,” Hurts said at his most recent OTA media session regarding his relationship with Brown. “We’re really good, and I saw how beautiful the pictures came out at his wedding. I’m very happy for him, and his wife and his family, and it’s a beautiful thing to step into covenant. So, I was very excited and congratulatory towards that.”

Brown ends his tenure with the Eagles as a Super Bowl 59 champion, a three-time second-team All-Pro, and a three-time Pro Bowler. He caught 339 receptions during his four seasons for 5,034 yards and 32 touchdowns, finishing top 10 in yards in franchise history.

While it wasn’t the ending the Eagles hoped it would be with Brown, you cannot deny the fact that the Eagles don’t make either the Super Bowl or even win without Brown. While DeVonta Smith was and is still a top wide receiver, Brown brought that No. 1 option energy when he was acquired from Tennessee, a feeling Eagles fans haven’t felt since the prime days of DeSean Jackson.

Many wished Brown would’ve finished his career in Philadelphia and helped the team win more Super Bowls, but sometimes dynasties see players come and go, and unfortunately, Brown will be one of those players. Still, you can’t deny the talent and memories that Brown brought during his time in Philadelphia.

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