{"id":866018,"date":"2026-04-14T06:36:25","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T06:36:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/866018\/"},"modified":"2026-04-14T06:36:25","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T06:36:25","slug":"patriots-leave-door-open-for-a-j-brown-trade-amid-rumors-before-nfl-draft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/866018\/","title":{"rendered":"Patriots Leave Door Open for A.J. Brown Trade Amid Rumors Before NFL Draft"},"content":{"rendered":"

New England Patriots<\/a> executive vice president of player personnel Eliot Wolf\u2019s latest comments about wide receiver A.J. Brown have further fueled trade speculation after a turbulent 2025 season with the Philadelphia Eagles<\/a>. Despite recording another 1,000-yard season, Brown was seen butting heads with the Philly coaching staff and has been rumored to leave the team. With the Patriots releasing their starting wide receiver Stefon Diggs, the Super Bowl runners-up have emerged as a landing spot, especially with Wolf\u2019s comment on the Brown situation.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs far as players on other teams, again, gonna keep the door open to anything that we think may improve our roster,\u201d Wolf said during a press conference on April 13. \u201cWhether that\u2019s with the player you mentioned or other players.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The Patriots completed a stellar turnaround in the 2025 season, going from a 4-13 team to the Super Bowl under new head coach Mike Vrabel. Leading this charge was their incredible offense, starting quarterback Drake Maye at the helm, which ranked second in points with 28.8 points per game. These stellar numbers were thanks to a receiving room that overachieved, with the veteran Stefon Diggs leading the team with 85 receptions on 100 targets for 1,013 receiving yards and 4 touchdowns.<\/p>\n

However, with Diggs\u2019 contract having a $26.5 million cap hit for the upcoming season and his off-field issues, like his legal case from December 2025 and his controversial breakup with former partner Cardi B, the Patriots decided to move on from him. With a hole at the WR1 spot despite the team signing Green Bay Packers<\/a>\u2018 Romeo Doubs, who agreed to a four-year contract with a base value of $68 million, New England is expected to make a move to bring a top-tier wideout.<\/p>\n

Here, A.J. Brown comes into the picture after a season where he posted 78 receptions for 1,003 receiving yards and seven touchdowns in 15 games, but had well-documented issues with the Eagles offense as he described it to be \u201ca s\u2014show\u201d. The problems continued throughout the regular season and even spilled into the postseason as Brown was involved in a heated verbal back-and-forth with head coach Nick Sirianni during the Eagles\u2019 NFC Wild Card round defeat against the San Francisco 49ers.<\/a><\/p>\n

There\u2019s significant speculation about the Eagles being open to trading Brown, especially with the Philly front office adding names like formerKansas City Chiefs<\/a> wideout Marquise \u201cHollywood\u201d Brown and ex-Buffalo Bills receiver Elijah Moore this free agency.<\/p>\n

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Furthermore, trading A.J. Brown after June 1 has its financial implications for the Eagles. Moving him before June 2 would result in a $43 million dead cap hit for Philly this season. The dead cap hit will be reduced to $16 million if the franchise makes the trade after the June 1 deadline.<\/p>\n

Another major reason why New England has emerged as a prime landing spot for A.J. Brown is head coach Vrabel, who worked with the star wideout at the Tennessee Titans from 2019 to 2021. When asked about the possibility of a reunion in Foxborough, Mike Vrabel, like Eliot Wolf, kept the door open.<\/p>\n

Mike Vrabel addresses the possibility of trading for A.J. Brown<\/p>\n

During a media interaction at the NFL Annual Meeting in Phoenix, Arizona, Mike Vrabel responded to questions about the Patriots trading for his former player, A.J. Brown, to bolster an offense that fell short in the Super Bowl. Vrabel revealed how New England is willing to take every step that would help them improve their roster and bring home the Super Bowl.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe\u2019ve talked about this since last January. We\u2019re going to try to do everything we can to strengthen our roster through the draft, through free agency, multiple ways of player acquisition,\u201d Vrabel said at the NFL\u2019s annual meeting. \u201cSo anything that we can continue to do to strengthen the roster, we\u2019re going to try to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

When reflecting on his initial period with the Tennessee Titans, A.J. Brown\u2019s recollection was rather telling; he didn\u2019t always receive the adoration and respect from the head coach. On the podcast titled Dudes on Dudes with Julian Edelman and Brian Hoyer in February, Brown shared that his initial encounter with Mike Vrabel was far from favorable.<\/p>\n

During his first year, he found it challenging to adapt to the coach\u2019s demeanor, which included constant criticism, strictness, and singling him out in front of others. To this extent, A.J. Brown mentioned that he used to write \u201cI hate Vrabel\u201d in his notes during practice just to appear busy.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the time, I didn\u2019t really like Vrabe. I didn\u2019t like him. I admit that, he knows that,\u201d Brown told hosts Julian Edelman and Brian Hoyer. \u201cIn my notebook, I used to write \u2018I hate Vrabe. I hate Vrabe. I hate Vrabe.\u2019 Right? But, I was doing that to pretend like I was taking notes to look like I was engaged.\u201d<\/p>\n

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In those moments, it seemed to be an unnecessary effort, a personal attack, and something he couldn\u2019t tolerate. However, it turns out that such an aggressive attitude played its role, motivating him throughout training sessions. During his rookie season, Brown not only made himself comfortable on the field but also left an indelible mark on the game. In 2019, he recorded 52 receptions for 1,051 yards and eight touchdowns, leading all NFL rookie records in receiving yards and averaging a staggering 20.2 yards per catch, establishing himself as a premier serious threat.<\/p>\n

So, definitely he has a chance in the team. Also, with current responses from Vrabel and Wolf, it\u2019s clear that the New England Patriots have some interest in adding another offensive weapon to avoid what happened in this year\u2019s Big Game in San Francisco. But only time will tell if A.J. Brown turns out to be that name ahead of the 2026 season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New England Patriots executive vice president of player personnel Eliot Wolf\u2019s latest comments about wide receiver A.J. Brown…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":866019,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2050],"tags":[8694,42138,4888,833,6084,839,7,345,6496,10745,110,58,838,1167,249,2326,2094,6,208,242,109,26723,3995,1161,252,531,394,1473],"class_list":{"0":"post-866018","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-england-patriots","8":"tag-a-j-brown","9":"tag-brian-hoyer","10":"tag-brown","11":"tag-drake-maye","12":"tag-elijah-moore","13":"tag-eliot-wolf","14":"tag-football","15":"tag-green-bay-packers","16":"tag-head-coach","17":"tag-julian-edelman","18":"tag-kansas-city-chiefs","19":"tag-los-angeles-rams","20":"tag-mike-vrabel","21":"tag-new-england","22":"tag-new-england-patriots","23":"tag-newengland","24":"tag-newenglandpatriots","25":"tag-nfl","26":"tag-patriots","27":"tag-philadelphia","28":"tag-philadelphia-eagles","29":"tag-receptions","30":"tag-romeo-doubs","31":"tag-san-francisco","32":"tag-san-francisco-49ers","33":"tag-stefon-diggs","34":"tag-tennessee-titans","35":"tag-wide-receiver"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116401680389105999","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/866018","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=866018"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/866018\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/866019"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=866018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=866018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=866018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}