Philly Front Office

UPDATE: AJ Brown traded to the Patriots for a 2028 1st and 2027 5th round picks

June 1, 2026…a day that will live in Eagles infamy. Today is the day that AJ Brown was finally traded. For anyone who has yet to fully come to terms with this, think of it like a relationship. Once it turns toxic, there is no going back to the way it was. Keeping him around will just bring down the rest of the team because there is simply no means of keeping that person happy. Simply, it’s over.

Eagles Summer Primer

We have a team to cheer for though! This is the Eagles we are talking about and we have the best general manager in sports. Do you think Howie Roseman would trade one of his best players without a plan? Without things being in good shape?

WR Room

Thinking about a world without AJ Brown was not a happy place a few months ago. Then the draft happened. Once we stole Makai Lemon from the Steelers, my WR troubles just faded away. I am not saying that Lemon 1 for 1 replaces Brown by any means (he’s no Traylon Burks!), but it is a clear infusion of talent into the WR room.

We have all been pretty high on DeVonta Smith since he entered the league and he has been a very high end #2 receiver since Brown got here, but now he steps into the shoes of the undisputed #1 after 5 seasons. While he does not have the size you would expect of a true #1, he does literally everything the position requires very well. He’s fast, a skilled route runner, high IQ (like every time he knows he didn’t catch it getting to the line), and no nonsense. They do not make #1s like him and that’s a good thing.

Lemon steps directly into the #2 spot and not just because of the top pick pedigree. He is what has become the new normal for WRs. He is the do everything type receiver who has every trick in the book to get open not unlike Jaxon Smith-Njigba and Puka Nacua. He is not those guys, but his game is very similar. Not burners and not physical freaks, just possession receivers you can spam open in perpetuity.

The Eagles made a trio of signings and trades this offseason, bringing in Dontayvion Wicks, Elijah Moore, and Hollywood Brown. They all provide different skillsets key to helping facilitate the new Sean Mannion offense. Wicks worked with Mannion last year in Green Bay and was clearly a priority in the offseason. He’s the possession receiver of the group with hopefully untapped upside at 25 years old. Moore had a lost 2025 but is only 26 years old and one year removed from back to back 100 target seasons on two terrible Cleveland teams. Of these 3, he is the most likely to not make the team, but is the quick twitch athlete that the WR room has not had in as long as I can remember. Brown is probably the one we know best, but has essentially disappeared the last few years following his 91 catch 2021 with the Ravens. Still, he’s a deep threat, the speed guy to take the roof off a defense that the Eagles have been unsuccessful at developing since Torrey Smith’s one season and the disappearance of Mike Wallace.

While Wicks and Brown will likely make the team due to their contracts, Elijah Moore is very much battling with Darius Cooper and Johnny Wilson for the final WR slots on the roster. Wilson is huge and fast for his size but missed all of last season with knee and ankle surgery. Obviously if he is a step slow he is destined for the practice squad, but on a team seriously lacking size at the position, they could look to keep him around. Cooper went undrafted last year but caught on with the Eagles as a high effort, blocking WR happy to play his role. That could prove valuable again on this team.

In the end, the Eagles need Smith to step up and Lemon to be competent in order to make up for the loss of AJ Brown. Considering the new offense will be designed to highlight their skillsets, it will still be tough but not impossible. As for the rest, this is easily the deepest group of WRs the Eagles have had in my lifetime.

Jonathan Bleeding Greenard

Salary Cap

This is the big one and the reason we had to wait until June 1 to get an AJ Brown deal done. There was a wrench thrown into this calculation recently. The June 1 cut was supposed to bring Brown’s cap hit down from $23m to $16m. However, Spotrac and Jeff McLane are reporting that around $5.5m of that savings will actually be credited to next year for some reason. If that is indeed true, it means the Eagles will have around $22.5m¹ in cap room remaining this season. The good news here is two fold in that the team was not banking on having that extra money, but now get $5.5m more to use on various extensions next year.

Without any more big roster moves, this looks to be the number we will be carrying into the season. This leaves Howie Roseman with some optionality at the trade deadline or a leg up on 2027 because that money carries over to the next season.

Draft Picks

Right now, the rumored compensation is a 2028 1st Round Pick from the Patriots. I obviously want more than this, but a 1st in an extra year is fine with me. Teams and experts devalue picks that are pushed out by a year, but when the time comes to draft, everyone wishes they still had that pick. It denies immediate gratification, but that’s fine. In Howie we trust.

There are other possible trades out there too like Tanner McKee. My dream of trading him for something substantial is probably over, but it only takes one injury during training camp for his value to skyrocket like Sam Bradford back in 2016.

Here are the Eagles upcoming draft picks:

• 2027
  • 1st
  • 2nd
  • 3rd (Jaelan Phillips Comp pick)
  • 4th
  • 5th
  • 5th (Patriots)
  • 7th (Jets or Ravens)
  • 7th (Cowboys)
• 2028
  • 1st
  • 1st (Patriots*)
  • 2nd
  • 3rd
  • 4th
  • 5th
  • 6th
  • 7th

How Are We Doing?

We are fine. Is the team worse talent-wise without AJ Brown? Yes. Can the team be a better offense without him? Yes. Is the franchise overall in a better place without him? Probably. Should we be happy overall for the AJ Brown experience over the last 4 years? Definitely. Now let’s never talk about him again.

1. I’ve seen it a little higher in places. My count considers Brandon Graham coming back an a lot of rounding, so we’ll where we are in a few months. Consider this a very conservative estimate of our finances. ↩︎