Chargers Could Still Be Team to End Eagles’ AJ Brown Trade Drama

The Chargers still have all the necessary assets and the need to make an AJ Brown trade happen with the Eagles.

A.J. Brown | Eric Hartline-Imagn Images

Until the Los Angeles Chargers actually make a move at wideout, Jim Harbaugh’s team will keep coming up in trade and free agency speculation around names like A.J. Brown and Tyreek Hill, respectively. 

And until the Philadelphia Eagles actually do something with Brown, he will keep getting name-dropped as a fit for a team like the Chargers. 

The Chargers, after all, have done everything on offense this offseason for Mike McDaniel’s unit…except for addressing wideout. They signed Tyler Biadasz and Cole Strange for the line. They added Keaton Mitchell at running back and Charlie Kolar at tight end. 

At wideout, Quentin Johnston looks like a trade candidate if McDaniel doesn’t want him. Keenan Allen is still a free agent. 

Naturally, the groundwork right there means the Chargers will remain a mainstay of Brown conversations. 

Chargers still fit as AJ Brown trade destination

A.J. Brown | Mark Konezny-Imagn Images

Brown and the Eagles still feel destined for a split. He’s unhappy with the Eagles and hasn’t been shy about letting it be known. 

Problem is, Howie Roseman and the Eagles won’t have an easy time moving Brown and his three-year, $96 million extension. How and when the cap hits kick in and whether Brown wants to play for a team that isn’t a contender complicates things. 

Good news: The Chargers have hoarded cap space. Not saving for a blockbuster move, sure, just being their usual unnecessarily conservative selves under Joe Hortiz. Regardless, they’ve still got $48.6 million free right now. Brown being a cap hit of around $23 million in each of the next two seasons before it jumps more wouldn’t be that big of a deal. 

Some of these factors are why a place like Bleacher Report and Gary Davenport continue to list the Chargers as one of the few resolutions to the Brown trade saga still out there. 

“In addition to draft pick compensation, they could include Johnston in a trade,” Davenport wrote. “And the Bolts are a team close enough to making a Super Bowl to make mortgaging the future for a run in the present worth it.”

The Chargers haven't picked up Johnston’s fifth-year option worth about $18 million. Moving that off the future books while acquiring Brown and losing his drop issues and questionable fit in McDaniel’s offense in the process would be a pretty shrewd deal. 

Any Brown trade might happen over the summer, not during the NFL draft itself. But Johnston being a former first-rounder and still just 24 years old and under team control for at least two more years might make for a pretty appealing asset to a team like the Eagles. 

On paper, Brown feasting on in-breaking routes in a McDaniel offense while weapons like Ladd McConkey and Oronde Gadsden space the field is almost too good to be true. 

The ability to make it happen is right there for the Chargers, though it would take Hortiz and the front office getting uncharacteristically aggressive to make it a reality. But again, until either party actually does something on these topics, they will continue to be linked by outsiders.

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