{"id":787703,"date":"2026-03-02T23:00:22","date_gmt":"2026-03-02T23:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/787703\/"},"modified":"2026-03-02T23:00:22","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T23:00:22","slug":"what-might-it-cost-for-patriots-to-pursue-a-j-brown-trade-nbc-sports-boston","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/787703\/","title":{"rendered":"What might it cost for Patriots to pursue A.J. Brown trade? \u2013 NBC Sports Boston"},"content":{"rendered":"

A.J. Brown’s future with the Philadelphia Eagles<\/a> is one of the most interesting NFL storylines as the offseason kicks into high gear.<\/p>\n

Brown has expressed his frustration with the Eagles offense at times, including this past season<\/a>. If a resolution isn’t reached, could the Eagles decide to trade him?<\/p>\n

One team that needs a legit No. 1 wide receiver of Brown’s caliber is the New England Patriots. They must do everything possible to surround franchise quarterback Drake Maye with as much high-end talent as possible at the skill positions.<\/p>\n

Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel also was Brown’s head coach on the Tennessee Titans during the first three years of the star wideout’s career from 2019 through 2021.<\/p>\n

What might it cost to get Brown? <\/p>\n

NBC Sports Philly’s Dave Zangaro joined Phil Perry on NBC Sports Boston’s Next Pats Podcast to discuss Brown’s future with the Eagles.<\/p>\n

“I think, especially with the Patriots, you look at that No. 31 overall pick,” Zangaro said. “I don’t think that’s a crazy price. It’s a high price. You might be thinking the Eagles don’t have any leverage if people know the player is frustrated, but I also think there are other teams that could get in that mix. <\/p>\n

“Maybe a second-round pick would do it, but I don’t think the Patriots’ second-round pick would do it. There’s a really big difference between high in the second round and late.”<\/p>\n

A first-round pick would be a steep price for the Patriots, but the top wide receivers in the 2026 draft class — Carnell Tate, Jordyn Tyson, Makai Lemon and Denzel Boston — likely will be off the board by the time New England is on the clock at the very end of Round 1.<\/p>\n

The last star wideout to be traded was DK Metcalf in March of 2025. The Seattle Seahawks traded Metcalf and a sixth-round pick to the Pittsburgh Steelers for a second-round pick (No. 52 overall) and a seventh-round pick.<\/p>\n

The Eagles can take their time assessing the situation with Brown. There’s no hard deadline coming up.<\/p>\n

“The Eagles aren’t going to be in a rush to trade him,” Zangaro said. “If the compensation isn’t what they need it to be, I think they’ll hold on to him until it is, or they can figure this out. I don’t think they’ll need to rush at it.”<\/p>\n

If the Eagles trade Brown before June 1, they would have a dead salary cap hit of $43.5 million, per Spotrac<\/a>. That would be an enormous amount of wasted money for a team that could contend for an NFC title next season. <\/p>\n

If the Eagles trade him after June 1, they’d have just a $16.35 million dead cap hit and actually open up $7 million of cap space.<\/p>\n

So there’s really no need for the Eagles to trade Brown anytime soon. It wouldn’t make financial sense to do so before June 1. <\/p>\n

Brown is also signed through 2029. He’s not close to free agency. The Eagles have time on their side. Will a team step up and make them an offer too good to pass up? We’ll see.<\/p>\n

Also in this episode: <\/p>\n

Eagles acknowledge they will take calls on A.J. Brown<\/p>\n

Mike Vrabel on his relationship with Brown<\/p>\n

Dave Zangaro on whether A.J. Brown gets dealt this offseason<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A.J. Brown’s future with the Philadelphia Eagles is one of the most interesting NFL storylines as the offseason…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":787704,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2068],"tags":[25,7,249,7933,6,7828,22681,242,109,2476],"class_list":{"0":"post-787703","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia-eagles","8":"tag-eagles","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-new-england-patriots","11":"tag-next-pats-podcast","12":"tag-nfl","13":"tag-nfl-offseason","14":"tag-patriots-offseason","15":"tag-philadelphia","16":"tag-philadelphia-eagles","17":"tag-philadelphiaeagles"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116162070304207894","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/787703","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=787703"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/787703\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/787704"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=787703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=787703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=787703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}