Eagles Today

Eagles Are In A Holding Pattern With A.J. Brown

Early February is generally not the time for trade talks in the NFL so take the "good news" surrounding A.J. Brown on Super Bowl Sunday with a grain of salt.
Dec 28, 2025; Orchard Park, New York, USA; Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver A.J. Brown (11) prepares to catch a pass against Buffalo Bills cornerback Christian Benford (47) during the first quarter at Highmark Stadium.
Dec 28, 2025; Orchard Park, New York, USA; Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver A.J. Brown (11) prepares to catch a pass against Buffalo Bills cornerback Christian Benford (47) during the first quarter at Highmark Stadium. | Mark Konezny-Imagn Images

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It’s Game Day, and savvy observers of the NFL world understand what that means.

It’s the repackaging old news for an expanded viewing audience, in this case, the largest projected number of the season in advance of Super Bowl LX between the NFC champion Seattle Seahawks and the AFC kingpins, the New England Patriots.

And that means, take the “positive” A.J. Brown news delivered from NFL Media in front of Levi’s Stadium with a grain of salt.

The only thing that’s changed in the week leading up to the Super Bowl is that Brown is doing his part en route to the end game with the situation remaining unresolved.

The idea that there have been no trade talks to date with Brown should be couched with the sentiment of 'Why would there be?' 

Why Would There Be Trade Talks?

Howie Roseman
Dec 8, 2025; Inglewood, California, USA; Philadelphia Eagles general manager Howie Roseman looks on before the game against the Los Angeles Chargers at SoFi Stadium. | Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

Especially with the Eagles dealing with significant coaching staff turnover, which has been priority No. 1 at the NovaCare Complex over the past few weeks.

If there are no substantive conversations about moving Brown around the NFL Scouting Combine at the end of the month, that does become very relevant and a good indication that the two sides have agreed on trying to running it back for at least another season with a new offensive coordinator in Sean Mannion being tasked with a makeover of what was a stale and often predictable passing offense that has frustrated Brown pretty consistently over the past two seasons.

For now, it’s the same holding pattern, understanding it would be difficult to trade Brown without a post-June 1 designation due to a massive $43.5 million dead-money charge, which in turn, makes it far more difficult to garner the kind of immediate compensation the Eagles would want.

To be fair NFL Media's Mike Garafolo did add in the context which often gets lost in the sauce to the aggregation headlines.

"One, there’s been no trade talks yet between the Eagles and some other teams. And there’s been only brief talks with Brown’s camp from the team," the reporter explained. "We do expect that to pick up around the scouting combine, which is only two weeks away."

Brown does seem to be in a better mindset, however, which is often the case when players get away from the grind and recharge the batteries.

"Everyone says A.J. Brown right now is in a good space and, just in my time talking to him briefly, I got the sense that he was much more at peace and much more calm about things," Garafolo noted. "Maybe removing himself from the emotion of the situation [helped]. If they trade him, it’ll be a $43.5 million cap hit, so they’ll want some significant compensation back if it gets to that.”

In other words, nothing has changed.

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John McMullen
JOHN MCMULLEN

John McMullen is a veteran reporter who has covered the NFL for over two decades. The current NFL insider for JAKIB Media, John is the former NFL Editor for The Sports Network where his syndicated column was featured in over 200 outlets including the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, and Miami Herald. He was also the national NFL columnist for Today's Pigskin as well as FanRag Sports. McMullen has covered the Eagles on a daily basis since 2016, first for ESPN South Jersey and now for Eagles Today on SI.com's FanNation. You can listen to John, alongside legendary sports-talk host Jody McDonald every morning from 8-10 on ‘Birds 365,” streaming live on YouTube.com. John is also the host of his own show "Extending the Play" on AM1490 in South Jersey and part of 6ABC.com's live postgame show after every Eagles game. You can reach him at jmcmullen44@gmail.com or on Twitter @JFMcMullen

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