{"id":852433,"date":"2026-04-04T02:02:28","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T02:02:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/852433\/"},"modified":"2026-04-04T02:02:28","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T02:02:28","slug":"nfl-executives-reportedly-expect-patriots-to-acquire-a-j-brown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/852433\/","title":{"rendered":"NFL executives reportedly \u2018expect\u2019 Patriots to acquire A.J. Brown"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tNew England Patriots\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tExperts widely view June 1 as the date to mark on one\u2019s calendar regarding the A.J. Brown saga.<\/p>\n

\"\"
\n\tEagles wide receiver A.J. Brown\u2019s connection to Mike Vrabel makes a Patriots trade plausible. AP Photo\/Terrance Williams\t<\/p>\n

Patriots offseason workouts<\/a> begin next month, but their roster still feels incomplete.<\/p>\n

A possible A.J. Brown trade with the Philadelphia Eagles continues to loom over the reigning AFC champions.<\/p>\n

New England has been linked to the star wide receiver as a likely landing spot dating back to last year if the Eagles were to part ways with him.<\/p>\n

Several NFL executives reportedly \u2018expect\u2019 the Patriots to land Brown amongst a likely competitive field of interested organizations.<\/p>\n

\u201cExecs expect the Patriots to acquire receiver A.J. Brown from Philadelphia in June, once the salary-cap implications become more tenable for the Eagles,\u201d according to The Athletic\u2019s Mike Sando<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt seems just a matter of waiting until June 1 passes for Philly to trade A.J. Brown, who in my opinion is a declining player each of the last three seasons,\u201d one executive told Sando.<\/p>\n

New England has kept its rumored heavy interest in Brown hush-hush when speaking with the media. For example, head coach Mike Vrabel fielded questions about Brown at this past week\u2019s NFL owners\u2019 meetings in Phoenix, Arizona, but offered a vague response.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve talked about this since last January. We\u2019re gonna try to do everything we can to strengthen our roster, through the draft, through free agency, multiple ways of player acquisition,\u201d Vrabel said<\/a> of Brown. \u201cSo, anything that we can continue to do to strengthen the roster, we\u2019re going to try to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

If the Patriots indeed strike a deal with the Eagles for Brown, it seemingly won\u2019t officially happen until June 1<\/a> at the earliest. If Philadelphia trades Brown after June 1, the player\u2019s dead cap hit would fall to $16.4 million from a whopping pre-June 1 $43 million.<\/p>\n

For a player of Brown\u2019s caliber, and given New England\u2019s unpolished WR corps, the Patriots appear happy to continue playing the waiting game.<\/p>\n

Brown, 28, is a three-time Pro Bowler with six 1,000-yard seasons under his belt as a seven-year NFL veteran. The wideout boasts that big-play gene every successful team requires.<\/p>\n

The Eagles have reportedly sought a first-round draft pick in exchange for Brown, and perhaps more, such as a second- or third-rounder.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s still a possibility that New England backs out of trade discussions if Philadelphia\u2019s asking price doesn\u2019t budge. While the teams have consistently been linked in rumors surrounding Brown, ESPN\u2019s Adam Schefter reported<\/a> last week that there is no \u201cunder-the-table\u201d deal in place between the organizations.<\/p>\n

The Patriots pounced on signing free agent WR Romeo Doubs last month, inking the player to a four-year, $68 million deal. However, the position room, particularly the WR1 spot, still feels incomplete following Stefon Diggs\u2019s release.<\/p>\n

New England\u2019s executive vice president of player personnel Eliot Wolf didn\u2019t rule out a reunion with Diggs, though. Wolf stated this multiple times last month.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, I never like to rule anything out,\u201d Wolf said<\/a> of Diggs on March 30. \u201cThere\u2019s always different scenarios that come up, whether you have an injury or a scheme shift, or whatever the case may be, so, don\u2019t wanna close the door on anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI wouldn\u2019t say the door is closed,\u201d Wolf said on March 12. \u201cI mean, again, we\u2019re going to look through every way we possibly can to help the team.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whether it\u2019s signing Diggs, acquiring Brown, or drafting a WR later this month, a WR addition feels inevitable heading into the 2026-27 campaign.<\/p>\n

\t\t\"Profile\t<\/p>\n

\t\tKaley Brown<\/a>Sports producer\t<\/p>\n

Kaley Brown is a sports producer for Boston.com, where she covers the Bruins, Celtics, Patriots, and Red Sox.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGet the latest Boston sports news<\/p>\n

Receive updates on your favorite Boston teams, straight from our newsroom to your inbox.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New England Patriots Experts widely view June 1 as the date to mark on one\u2019s calendar regarding the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":852434,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2068],"tags":[25,7,6,242,109,2476],"class_list":{"0":"post-852433","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-nfl","11":"tag-philadelphia","12":"tag-philadelphia-eagles","13":"tag-philadelphiaeagles"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116343982160626470","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/852433","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=852433"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/852433\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/852434"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=852433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=852433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=852433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}