{"id":824165,"date":"2026-03-21T00:55:21","date_gmt":"2026-03-21T00:55:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/824165\/"},"modified":"2026-03-21T00:55:21","modified_gmt":"2026-03-21T00:55:21","slug":"sydney-brown-trade-grades-falcons-earn-higher-mark-than-eagles-for-acquiring-safety","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/824165\/","title":{"rendered":"Sydney Brown trade grades: Falcons earn higher mark than Eagles for acquiring safety"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Falcons<\/a> and Eagles<\/a> have agreed to a trade that sends safety Sydney Brown<\/a> to Atlanta and helps Philadelphia move up slightly in the 2026 NFL Draft<\/a>. Here are the full details, per CBS Sports lead NFL insider Jonathan Jones<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Falcons receive: Safety Sydney Brown, 2026 fourth-round pick (No. 122 overall), 2026 sixth-round pick (No. 215 overall)Eagles receive: 2026 fourth-round pick (No. 114 overall), 2026 sixth-round pick (No. 197 overall)<\/p>\n

Brown, 25, was a third-round pick of the Eagles in 2023, and he played in 14 games (six starts) as a rookie before tearing his ACL late in the season. He returned to game action in Week 7 of the 2024 season, appearing in 11 regular-season games and all four playoff games — mostly on special teams — for the eventual Super Bowl<\/a> champions. In 2025, he played in all 17 games (three starts), again playing mostly special teams. He played on 22% of Philadelphia’s defensive snaps last year.<\/p>\n

Brown showed promise early in his career and had a 99-yard pick six against the Cardinals<\/a>. The next week, however, he suffered the torn ACL that would cost him the rest of his rookie season and some of his second year. Last year, he was a key special teamer for Philadelphia and returned a blocked punt for a touchdown.<\/p>\n

The Eagles made this move despite already having a clear need at safety. Philadelphia lost Reed Blankenship<\/a> to the Texans<\/a> in free agency. That leaves Andrew Mukuba<\/a>, coming into his second year, as the only returning starter for the reigning NFC East champions.<\/p>\n

The Falcons, meanwhile, have a veteran stalwart in Jessie Bates III<\/a> and a promising rising second-year player in Xavier Watts<\/a> as their safety duo. Brown, who is the brother of Bengals<\/a> running back Chase Brown<\/a>, figures to slot in behind those two players and be a key special teamer for new coach Kevin Stefanski.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

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

Grade: B<\/p>\n

Brown was a top-100 prospect according to CBS Sports’ 2023 NFL Draft prospect rankings<\/a>, and he ended up going 66th overall to Philadelphia. Though he showed some flashes here and there, he was mostly a special teamer. That doesn’t mean he can’t be more than that in his new home, though. Brown has earned mediocre Pro Football Focus grades, though he earned a solid tackling grade in 2025. There are worse options than Brown as a third or fourth safety.<\/p>\n

Brown is a proven special teams contributor. He’s entering the final year of his rookie deal, and he came very cheap. If the Falcons identified something they liked in a former third-round pick who is just 25, and it cost them almost nothing to acquire him, they deserve a solid mark.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

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

Grade: C+<\/p>\n

The Eagles have moved pretty quietly this offseason. I am a big fan of the Riq Woolen addition on a one-year deal, and the cornerback trio of Quinyon Mitchell<\/a>, Cooper DeJean<\/a> and Woolen could be absolutely outstanding. At safety, Mukuba will have to make a significant leap in his second year and prove he can stay healthy. The other starting safety likely currently isn’t on the roster.<\/p>\n

Overall, this Eagles team has lost a lot, particularly on defense:\u00a0Jaelan Phillips<\/a>\u00a0to the Dolphins<\/a>, Nakobe Dean<\/a> to the Raiders<\/a> and Blankenship to the Texans. Now, there’s another hole at safety. Does moving up a few spots in the fourth and sixth rounds warrant losing a player who, if nothing else, provides solid defensive depth and good special teams play?<\/p>\n

This isn’t a big trade, of course. Brown wasn’t much of a defensive contributor, and improving draft capital for a player whose time has run its course isn’t a bad move, per se. Plus, in the immediate aftermath of the deal, Philadelphia brought back safety Marcus Epps<\/a> and also signed special teamer J.T. Gray<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It’s just a bit strange to see the Eagles chip away at their defense even more in an offseason full of losses. Maybe an A.J. Brown<\/a> trade down the road remains on the board, which could help Philadelphia recoup some defensive talent. For now, though, Howie Roseman will need to nail the draft and the under-the-radar free agent acquisitions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Falcons and Eagles have agreed to a trade that sends safety Sydney Brown to Atlanta and helps…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":824166,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2026],"tags":[8694,913,390,254,4132,256,1171,114241,114243,114244,7,253,19598,16251,2664,1981,393,9593,251,477,6,109,2024,9716,9717,114242,114245,1416],"class_list":["post-824165","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-a-j-brown","tag-andrew-mukuba","tag-arizona-cardinals","tag-atlanta-falcons","tag-chase-brown","tag-cincinnati-bengals","tag-cooper-dejean","tag-eagles-falcons-trade","tag-eagles-trade-grade","tag-falcons-trade-grade","tag-football","tag-houston-texans","tag-j-t-gray","tag-jaelan-phillips","tag-jessie-bates-iii","tag-jonathan-jones","tag-las-vegas-raiders","tag-marcus-epps","tag-miami-dolphins","tag-nakobe-dean","tag-nfl","tag-philadelphia-eagles","tag-quinyon-mitchell","tag-reed-blankenship","tag-sydney-brown","tag-sydney-brown-trade","tag-sydney-brown-trade-grade","tag-xavier-watts"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/824165","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=824165"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/824165\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/824166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=824165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=824165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=824165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}