The Eagles signed a wide receiver Tuesday who just happens to be one of A.J. Brown’s closest friends in the world.
Elijah Moore, Brown’s teammate at Mississippi and roommate in Oxford, signed a one-year deal that reunites him with Brown. At least for now. The move was first reported by NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport and confirmed by NBC Sports Philadelphia.
Will Moore’s presence help ease Brown’s frustrations with the Eagles and possibly impact their plans to possibly trade him? That remains to be seen. But it can’t hurt.
Brown hosted Moore during his visit to Ole Miss in 2017 and they quickly became very close.
“He knows that I don’t let people live with me, but there was just something about him that was different, man,” Brown said in an interview with ESPN.com in 2022. “His energy, his mindset. If you’re around him, you’ll see what I’m saying. He lights up the room.”
Brown and Moore only played one year together for the Rebels, in 2018. Brown was drafted in the second round by the Titans in 2019 and Moore in the second round in 2021 by the Jets, whose general manager at the time was current Eagles senior personnel director Joe Douglas.
The Eagles signed a wide receiver Tuesday who just happens to be one of A.J. Brown’s closest friends in the world.
Elijah Moore, Brown’s teammate at Mississippi and roommate in Oxford, signed a one-year deal that reunites him with Brown. At least for now.
Will Moore’s presence help ease Brown’s frustrations with the Eagles and possibly make a trade less likely? That remains to be seen. But it can’t hurt.
Brown hosted Moore during his visit to Ole Miss in 2017 and they quickly became very close.
“He knows that I don’t let people live with me, but there was just something about him that was different, man,” Brown said in an interview with ESPN.com in 2022. “His energy, his mindset. If you’re around him, you’ll see what I’m saying. He lights up the room.”
Brown and Moore only played one year together for the Rebels, in 2018. Brown was drafted in the second round by the Titans in 2019 and Moore in the second round in 2021 by the Jets.
Now they’re teammates for the first time in eight years.
“I wouldn’t even call it a friendship. It’s family,” Moore said in that 2022 ESPN story. “The things we’ve been through, the things we talk about, it has real substance. That’s someone who is connected to me in a way that’s more than … He’s blood.”
Brown credits Moore with helping him through some dark times when he was dealing with depression.
“Someone to talk to, someone I could lean on, I could depend on,” he said. “He’s a talker. He’s always trying to have a deep talk. He’s always so serious. He jokes around, too, but he’s always trying to have those long, deep talks and before you know it, we’ll be talking for hours. Just talking about life.”
Added Moore: “If I could help my brother get through something where he’s thinking low or just having thoughts he shouldn’t be having, then I want to help. I’m just glad he was listening to me.”
Moore spent just two years with the Jets, catching 80 passes for 984 yards and six touchdowns, before getting traded to the Browns after the 2022 season. In two years in Cleveland, he caught 120 passes for 1,178 yards and three touchdowns. He began last year with the Bills, catching just nine passes for 112 yards in nine games, before getting waived in November. He spent the rest of the season on the Broncos’ practice squad but never played.
In all, Moore has 209 catches for 2,274 yards and nine touchdowns in 70 games over five seasons.
He’s had two 100-yard games – 8-for-141 with the Jets vs. the Dolphins in 2021 and 8-for-111 with the Browns at Denver in 2024. He only has one career touchdown over 30 yards, a 62-yard from Joe Flacco with the Browns in 2021. His 10.9 career average is 80th-highest among 90active WRs who’ve been targeted at least 200 times.
Moore joins a rapidly expanding wide receiver room that now includes Brown and DeVonta Smith along with incumbents Darius Cooper, Johnny Wilson, Britain Covey, Danny Gray and Quez Watkins plus newcomer Hollywood Brown.