{"id":683558,"date":"2026-01-17T05:56:22","date_gmt":"2026-01-17T05:56:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/683558\/"},"modified":"2026-01-17T05:56:22","modified_gmt":"2026-01-17T05:56:22","slug":"rams-cant-make-mistake-of-trading-for-a-j-brown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/683558\/","title":{"rendered":"Rams can\u2019t make mistake of trading for A.J. Brown"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Los Angeles Rams are always one of the first teams to pop up in trade rumors for star players and it\u2019s inevitable that they will be connected to A.J. Brown when the season is officially over. But if the Rams want to find a future after Davante Adams by trading for Brown, they should not do it for at least one simple reason: A.J. Brown is also too old.<\/p>\n

The Eagles are hoping to find a sucker.<\/p>\n

Ignore what Eagles GM Howie Roseman says about the team not intending to trade Brown<\/a>, that\u2019s the same schlock that general manager say every year about players on the block. It\u2019s 2026: You can\u2019t still be falling for that in this age.<\/p>\n

Yes, Brown had a terrible game in Philly\u2019s loss to the 49ers last week.<\/p>\n

Yes, Brown seems to be a diva.<\/p>\n

But those aren\u2019t the main reason that a team shouldn\u2019t trade anything significant for A.J. Brown. He\u2019s just too old.<\/p>\n

And he\u2019s only 28. Well, wake up, it\u2019s 2026: That\u2019s too old to be a receiver in the National Football League. Every player in the top 12 in receiving yards in 2025 is 26 and younger:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

A.J. Brown, who had 1,003 yards in 15 games, is going to turn 29 in June. He\u2019s not too old\u2026he\u2019s WAY too old.<\/p>\n

Not too old to be in the NFL, but certainly too old to pay $30 million or trade a first round pick to acquire. Those are the types of costs you pay for an elite receiver you can build your offense around and Brown, who was that value in 2022 when the Eagles acquired him at age 25, is not that guy anymore.<\/p>\n

If Roseman thinks that pretending he won\u2019t trade A.J. Brown will drive up his price to a first round pick, he\u2019ll be waiting all year for a taker.<\/p>\n

How about a second round pick? That\u2019s what the Steelers traded for DK Metcalf and then they paid Metcalf $33 million per season. How\u2019s that looking?<\/p>\n

Metcalf, who just turned 28, had 850 yards and was suspended for the last two games of the season for making the exact same \u201cMr. Sensitive\u201d mistakes that he made while he was a cheaper player in Seattle. That\u2019s really when you want to have a star receiver: When he\u2019s cheap and on a rookie contract or second contract.<\/p>\n

But the Steelers traded for Metcalf and paid him a third contract. The Eagles paid Brown a third contract in 2024 and they already regret it.<\/p>\n

If the Eagles trade A.J. Brown before June 1st, they will incur a $43 million dead cap charge in 2026, which is basically double what they will pay Brown if they don\u2019t trade him. Here\u2019s what Jimmy Kempski wrote in The Philly Voice<\/a>:<\/p>\n

If Brown is traded this offseason before June 1, the Eagles would incur a dead cap charge of $43,515,106. Worded another way, he would count for $43,515,106 on the Eagles\u2019 cap in 2026, while playing for another team. If the Eagles simply kept him, Brown would count for 23,393,497 on their 2026 cap, and, you know, he would be playing for the Eagles. (The dead cap charge would still be $43,515,106 if he\u2019s traded after June 1, but $27,161,609 of it would count toward the 2027 cap.)<\/p>\n

Kempski notes that despite the cap charge, Philadelphia\u2019s front office already operates with an expectation that they will pay huge dead cap hits for former players EVERY SEASON. That would be no different if they trade Brown. They basically expected something like this could happen.<\/p>\n

Brown has reportedly been requesting a trade for months.<\/p>\n

The Eagles would be financially free of Brown by 2027.<\/p>\n

It makes sense that the Eagles would trade Brown if a team was willing to give up a pick that could allow Philadelphia to draft his replacement, which is what the Titans attempted to do in 2022 (but they landed Treylon Burks instead). It worked for the Vikings in 2021 when they traded Stefon Diggs and drafted Justin Jefferson.<\/p>\n

But why in the world would a GM smart enough to have a job trade a first round pick for a 29-year-old receiver who is owed a lot of money and is known to be a diva?<\/p>\n

Why would you even trade a second round pick for A.J. Brown? Half of the receivers you can draft in the second round of an average draft class will be far more valuable per dollar than Brown at age 29.<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s just age 29. Let\u2019s not forget that you\u2019re also trading for a receiver at age 30, age 31, and age 32.<\/p>\n

These are BAD receivers relative to the top receivers in the NFL in 2026.<\/p>\n

As I wrote back in 2021, four years ago, turning 29 has not been kind to receivers<\/a>. I was told by many people \u201comg you\u2019re so dumb, obviously you\u2019re wrong about all these players and you don\u2019t understand that cooper kupp is going to age so much better than all of these players!!!\u201d<\/p>\n

Did Kupp age better than those players? Or was 2021 his last good season?<\/p>\n

The best 29-year-old receivers in 2025:<\/p>\n

Jakobi Meyers, 75 catches for 835 yards (2 teams)Deebo Samuel, 72 catches for 727 yards<\/p>\n

No other receiver in the NFL who was exactly 29 years old this season had more than 400 yards. Got that? The 29-year-old PLAYER with the most receiving yards was Christian McCaffrey, followed by tight end Juwan Johnson. The receivers were led by Meyers, who got traded, and Samuel, who got traded.<\/p>\n

Best 30-year-old receivers in 2025:<\/p>\n

Courtland Sutton, 74 catches for 1,017 yardsTerry McLaurin, 38 catches for 582 yardsKendrick Bourne, 37 catches for 551 yards<\/p>\n

The Commanders stupidly caved to public pressure and extended McLaurin before the season. Don\u2019t cave to pressure from fans and media, which these days is mostly made up of fans. Even the people on ESPN are mostly just fans parading as experts.<\/p>\n

No 31-year-old receiver had more than 400 yards. Calvin Ridley led the way with 303 yards.<\/p>\n

Best 32-year-old receivers in 2025:<\/p>\n

Stefon Diggs, 85 catches for 1,013 yardsCooper Kupp, 47 catches for 593 yardsMack Hollins, 46 catches for 550 yards<\/p>\n

Diggs had a good season in New England as Drake Maye\u2019s number one receiver. He\u2019s good. He\u2019s not great anymore. He\u2019s not a game changer and you wouldn\u2019t trade a second round pick for Diggs. The Patriots only paid him $16.6 million guaranteed as a free agent.<\/p>\n

Here is where we finally get to Davante Adams, who a lot of people will claim isn\u2019t overpaid because he caught 14 touchdowns but at many times he has been a liability, most importantly including when it comes to the typical injuries that come with a player over 30.<\/p>\n

Best 33-year-old receivers in 2025:<\/p>\n

Davante Adams, 60 catches for 789 yardsKeenan Allen, 81 catches for 777 yards<\/p>\n

Adams has been great at catching touchdowns inside the 4-yard line. He had nine of those! The Rams got a pretty good 2025 cap hit on Adams too as he only accounts for $12 million against the 2025 salary cap. However, the Rams really want to be able to win that Super Bowl now because L.A. must be considering an outright release in 2026 given that Adams is going to be 34 and it\u2019s only going to get harder for him to produce yards and touchdowns and stay healthy in 2026.<\/p>\n

The Rams will either pay Adams a $28 million cap hit or cut him to save $14 million with $14 million of savings. That\u2019s $14 million dead cap if he\u2019s released or retires. However, the Rams could also restructure his deal, but that wouldn\u2019t save them any money, it would only reduce his 2026 cap hit.<\/p>\n

In either case, Adams\u2014even with 789 yards\u2014is an outlier.<\/p>\n

The total case: WR is a YOUNG man\u2019s job<\/p>\n

Players over the age of 26 who had over 1,000 yards in a 17-game season:<\/p>\n

SuttonDiggsDeVonta SmithAJ Brown<\/p>\n

None of those players cleared 1,000 by more than 17 yards.<\/p>\n

Did you really absorb that? Nobody over age 26 had more than 1,017 yards despite a 17-game season and passing being easier than ever. Why not? Teams don\u2019t want to feature and pay one player over the age of 26 when they know that they can get the job done with receivers, tight ends, and backs who are cheaper and younger.<\/p>\n

Does A.J. Brown get the message: Nobody wants to put up with a 29-year-old receiver diva.<\/p>\n

So while you will hear a ton of rumors about teams trading first round picks for A.J. Brown, don\u2019t buy it. That\u2019s not going to happen. Will teams trade second round picks for Brown? Only a sucker would do that. Would the Eagles even trade Brown for a third round pick? Maybe not.<\/p>\n

I would be shocked if the Rams get seriously involved in talks for Brown and that\u2019s in addition to the likelihood that the Rams are not going to play many more games with Davante Adams.<\/p>\n

A team spending a long time with one receiver is\u2026old news.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Los Angeles Rams are always one of the first teams to pop up in trade rumors for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":683559,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2079],"tags":[7,1014,58,5089,3378,2444,2611,6,424],"class_list":{"0":"post-683558","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles-rams","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-los-angeles","10":"tag-los-angeles-rams","11":"tag-los-angeles-rams-roster","12":"tag-los-angeles-rams-rumors","13":"tag-losangeles","14":"tag-losangelesrams","15":"tag-nfl","16":"tag-rams"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115908904143931156","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/683558","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=683558"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/683558\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/683559"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=683558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=683558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=683558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}