Trading for A.J. Brown was the right move for the Patriots, but there’s a lot not to like about it
The Patriots’ social media team couldn’t contain its excitement after the team traded for receiver A.J. Brown Monday, posting 15 times about Brown on X in 24 hours.
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There were multiple posts announcing the trade, even though Brown hadn’t yet passed a physical. A picture of Brown holding up a Patriots jersey. A video of Brown arriving in Foxborough Tuesday morning. Brown’s highlight reel from the Eagles. A one-handed catch from Brown’s first practice with the team.
“He’s here,” the Patriots posted, “and he’s perfect.”
The excitement is understandable. Brown, a three-time Pro Bowler who helped the Eagles win a Super Bowl two years ago, is the Patriots’ most accomplished pass catcher since Rob Gronkowski last played here in 2018. Acquiring Brown was a move the Patriots had to make after releasing Stefon Diggs in March. The Patriots can now credibly say they have improved the offense from last year.
“There’s a force to the way he plays the game,” offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels said Tuesday of Brown. “Maybe the closest thing I’ve seen is Gronk. This is a big guy.”
Trading for Brown was the right move for the Patriots, but it wasn’t a perfect one. A closer look reveals a good amount of risk and an overpay for the Patriots.
Brown, who turns 29 at the end of this month, has some red flags. He has chronic knee issues that will likely require him to miss practices this year. In the Eagles’ Super Bowl run of 2024-25, Brown had his knee drained twice per week. The Philadelphia Inquirer reported Monday night that the Rams opted against pursuing Brown in March because of concerns over his knee.
Brown also was a diva for the Eagles, publicly expressing disappointment throughout his four-year tenure and feuding with Jalen Hurts. This on a team that made the playoffs each year, and fed Brown more than 120 targets in three of the seasons.
Brown costs a good chunk of money, too. The Patriots owe him $29 million this year and $21 million next year, which isn’t bad if Brown keeps playing like an elite receiver, but isn’t cheap, either.
The red flags can be overlooked or explained away. The fact that Mike Vrabel and many of the offensive coaches know Brown well from their time together in Tennessee is crucial.
But it’s notable that the Patriots were the only team engaging the Eagles in trade talks the last few months.
Given that backdrop, the price the Patriots paid for Brown is stunning — a 2028 first-round pick, plus a 2027 fifth-rounder. Yes, the first-round pick is two years from now, and the Patriots expect to be competitive, but who knows? The Chiefs certainly didn’t expect to go 6-11 and have the No. 9 pick this year. Come 2028, the Patriots will miss that pick.
“That’s a terrific return for the Eagles for A.J. Brown at this stage of his career,” said salary-cap expert Jason Fitzgerald of OverTheCap.com.
If the bidding for Brown were competitive, then giving up a 2028 first-rounder would be a no-brainer. But the Patriots were bidding against themselves, yet still gave up a premium pick.
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It’s true, the Eagles weren’t going to trade Brown until after June 1, but the Patriots didn’t have to pounce right away. They could have made the Eagles sweat it out a bit.
Monday night, I made an appearance on SiriusXM NFL Radio to discuss the trade, and former Chargers and Raiders general manager Tom Telesco asked me why the Patriots weren’t more patient.
“They were really the only team really negotiating with the Eagles, so they have all the leverage in this situation, because it looked like the Eagles were going to trade A.J. Brown, but they only had one team to send him to,” Telesco said. “Any sense that the Pats could have just waited out a little longer and try to save the one?”
Based on the 15 posts from the Patriots’ social media account, no, it doesn’t seem the Patriots had any interest in waiting. The Patriots wanted Brown, and making the trade now allows him to attend practices for two weeks and get on the same page with Drake Maye and the offense before training camp begins.
It would be naïve, though, not to consider another reason for making the trade now — to distract from the episode involving Vrabel and Dianna Russini. Tuesday’s media session was previously scheduled to be open to the media, and it turned into the A.J. Brown Show, from Vrabel’s news conference, to the interviews with the offensive coaches, to Brown being the focus at practice, to Brown speaking to reporters afterward.
It certainly seems the Patriots were so desperate to move past the Vrabel-Russini story that they were willing to overpay for Brown.
“A first-round pick’s a first-round pick,” Eagles GM Howie Roseman said. “Doesn’t matter. Team’s still going to be playing football in 2028.”
There’s also a question of how much the Patriots have actually improved. The additions of Brown and Romeo Doubs are solid, but the Patriots already released Diggs, and it looks like Kayshon Boutte, who has been absent all spring, might be the next to go. That’s 118 catches, 1,564 yards, and 10 touchdowns out the door, from two players who built a solid rapport with Maye and helped the Patriots reach the Super Bowl.
I’d like the Brown and Doubs moves more were the Patriots able to keep Diggs or Boutte and move on from DeMario Douglas or Efton Chism. Instead, the Patriots might just be reshuffling the deck chairs at the top of the depth chart.
Adding Brown is certainly exciting, and will sell a lot of jerseys this summer. But the facts are that the Patriots gave up a first-round pick and more, for a moody, expensive receiver with a bad knee, even though they were bidding against themselves.
Brown is here, and the Patriots are probably better off, but this trade is hardly perfect.
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