Patriots receive:
- WR A.J. Brown
- 2026 6th-round pick (No. 197 overall)
Eagles receive:
- 2026 1st-round pick (No. 31)
- 2026 4th-round pick (No. 125)
- WR Kayshon Boutte
The Patriots have figured as a potential landing spot for Brown all offseason, and it makes a lot of sense. Drake Maye led New England to the Super Bowl with Stefon Diggs narrowly cresting 1,000 yards and no other wide receiver reaching 600 on the season. More concerning was that no wideout totaled 200 yards across New England’s four-game playoff run, with Diggs putting up 110 yards in the postseason. This offseason, the team released Diggs and signed Romeo Doubs, whose career high is a mere 724 receiving yards in a season — meaning the Patriots are once again set to field one of the barest, lowest-upside receiver rooms in the entire league.
Brown would step into New England as the clear-cut No. 1 and he’d probably be franchise’s most legitimate “X” receiver since Randy Moss nearly two decades ago. Brown is also an excellent fit for Maye’s arm and the Patriots’ downfield offense. Since coming into the league in 2019, he’s registered 22 deep touchdowns, the third-most in the league in that span, and his 101.7 receiving EPA on deep targets ranks fourth-highest, according to Next Gen Stats. Speaking of his draft selection, the head coach who landed Brown early in the second round in Tennessee back then was Mike Vrabel. A Brown-Vrabel reunion checks a lot of boxes, as long as the teams can come to an agreement on compensation.
P.S. The recent news that the Eagles and Patriots will hold joint training camp practices in Foxborough makes this all the more intriguing.
