A.J. Brown
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Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver A.J. Brown.
If you’re putting together a list of the best NFL players nobody ever really talks about, New Orleans Saints wide receiver Chris Olave better be in contention for the No. 1 spot.
Olave has toiled away in relative anonymity the last 4 seasons on some truly terrible teams in New Orleans and still managed to establish himself as 1 of the NFL’s elite players at his position.
Now, headed into Olave’s 5th NFL season and with a $15.493 million 5th year option hanging over his head, if the Saints don’t want to pay for a lucrative extension there may be a path to getting him to the Philadelphia Eagles in exchange for disgruntled wide receiver A.J. Brown.
“Interest in A.J. Brown has picked up here late in the week,” ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler wrote on Sunday. “A few teams I consulted believe a trade package including a second-round pick is his true trade value. Would that be enough to lure him from Philadelphia? I’m not sure that gets it done for Eagles GM Howie Roseman. But the buzz around Brown isn’t dissipating … During the Eagles’ offensive coordinator search, some candidates got the impression that Brown was part of the plan. That’s why some around the league believe Roseman could target a veteran receiver as part of any trade package — say, if New Orleans can’t reach a deal with Chris Olave in New Orleans.”
For the Saints, who seem like they are at least a full year away from being contenders in their own division, much less the NFC, the price of Olave might just be too high to invest in right now and Brown could be a logical fix.
Wild Projection for Olave’s First Mega-Contract
Olave bounced back from serious concussion issues in 2024 which cost him 9 games to have career highs across the board in 2025 on the way to earning NFL All-Pro honors — 100 receptions for 1,162 yards and 9 touchdowns.
Those numbers are what has sent Olave’s value in the open market skyrocketing, with Spotrac projecting his next contract to be in the range of a 4-year, $131.8 million deal which would pay him $33 million per season.
That would make Olave the 4th highest paid wide receiver in the NFL — he has 3 seasons of at least 1,000 yards receiving in his first 4 seasons.
Any deal for Brown, even for a player like Olave, would be tricky because of the salary cap implications for the Eagles. If he’s traded before June 1, it incurs a dead cap hit of roughly $43 million in 2026. If he’s traded after June 1, that money gets spread out over 2026 and 2027.
Possible Reunion With Kellen Moore in New Orleans
Saints head coach Kellen Moore went 6-11 in his first season with the Saints in 2025 and was the offensive coordinator for the Eagles in 2024 when they won the Super Bowl. He also got an up close and personal feel for what the real A.J. Brown experience was like that year when Brown complained about the offense in the middle of a 10-game winning streak.
While Eagles general manager Howie Roseman might be able to snow other GMs with stories about Brown being overblown, he can’t really do that with Moore.