FOXBORO — Patriots executive vice president of player personnel Eliot Wolf didn’t rule out the possibility of acquiring Eagles wide receiver A.J. Brown via trade during Monday’s pre-draft press conference.
Wolf was asked if the team was keeping the door open to potentially trade for Brown.
“As far as players on other teams, again, going to keep the door open to anything that we think may improve our roster, whether that’s with the player you mentioned or other players,” Wolf said.
The Patriots could acquire Brown before next week’s draft, but the Eagles might be hesitant to make the move before June 1 for contractual reasons.
If Brown is traded pre-June 1, the Eagles would take on $43 million in dead money and subtract $20 million from their salary cap space. If he’s traded post-June 1, then that dead money would be spread out, and they would actually save $7 million in cap space.
Based on past trades for top wide receivers, it would likely cost the Patriots a first-round pick and more to acquire Brown.
Typically, future draft picks are less valuable than those in the current draft. This is the rare year when that might not be the case. This is considered a weak draft class by most standards, while the 2027 class is expected to be much stronger. The Patriots hold the 31st overall pick in the 2026 NFL Draft. Unless they make the Super Bowl again this season, then they’ll be picking earlier in 2027.