A.J. Brown
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Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver A.J. Brown.
Quick, tell us the last time the Philadelphia Eagles ended up on the bad end of a trade. One where they got totally worked over.
Probably can’t think of it off the top of your head, can you? That’s because it seemingly never happens anymore.
One NFL insider is warning the Eagles of getting too sure of themselves when it comes to a potential trade of 3-time NFL All-Pro wide receiver A.J. Brown, and to look to their recent past with Brown himself as a warning to how bad things can go if you trade away an elite NFL skill player.
“I think the Eagles need to set all of them down, to call a family meeeting with Jalen Hurts, Nick Sirianni and A.J. Brown, who is still in his prime at 29 years old, and tell them ‘Hey, we have to make this thing work,’ ” ESPN NFL analyst and former New York Jets general manager Mike Tanenbaum said on Friday morning. “(Brown) is already a cautionary tale over the trade that brought him to the Eagles from the Titans, and what happened with the Titans when (New England Patriots head coach) Mike Vrabel was the head coach there and they traded Brown.”
What Tanenbaum is really trying to say is players like Brown don’t come around too often — and whatever issues there are can’t be bigger than the franchise itself.
Eagles Pulled Off GOAT Trade for A.J. Brown in 2022
Four years out from when the Eagles traded their 2022 1st round pick and 2022 3rd round pick to the Titans for Brown — a move we can now safely call 1 of the most lopsided trades in NFL history.
For the Eagles, it meant getting the centerpiece to their offense for the last 4 seasons. In that stretch, the Eagles have made the playoffs each year and played in 2 Super Bowls, winning 1 following the 2024 season.
Brown has been among the NFL’s handful of elite wide receivers in that time, with 3 consecutive All-Pro nods from 2022 to 2024 and 4 consecutive seasons with at least 1,000 receiving yards.
He’s also been paid like it, signing a 4-year, $100 million contract extension the day he was traded and then re-upping on a 3-year, $96 million contract extension before the 2024 season.
Titans Set Franchise Back Decade With Trade
The “cautionary” part of the trade comes with the Titans, who used the 1st round pick on wide receiver Treylon Burks and traded the 3rd round pick.
Trading Brown also led to 1 of the great viral moments in NFL draft history, when Vrabel, disgusted by the move, stormed out of the Titans’ war room when the trade was announced.
Because of injuries, Burks played in just 27 games in 3 seasons with 53 receptions, 699 yards and 1 touchdown — on a fumble he recovered in the end zone.
In that same stretch, Brown played in 47 games with 261 receptions, 4,031 yards and 25 touchdowns. In 13 career postseason games, Brown has 44 receptions for 623 yards and 5 touchdowns.
“Drafted out of force in one of the most unpopular trades in Titans history while AJ Brown dominates as an Eagle and wins a ring,” X user Urinating Tree wrote on their official X account after Burks was waived by the Titans. “Treylon Burks never had a (expletive) chance.”