While AJ Brown has only been a member of the New England Patriots for about a day, it's felt like he's been off the Philadelphia Eagles roster for months now, with Howie Roseman and Eliot Wolf engaging in trade conversations around the star wide receiver all the way back in March that couldn't be executed until June 1 due to the cap ramifications.
For Eagles fans, the process of watching Brown's slow-motion trade has been a bizarre experience, but what was it like for the players on the Eagles roster, many of whom won the Super Bowl with the former No. 11?
Well, while talking to reporters on Tuesday, star left tackle Jordan Mailata commented on just that, noting that even he was glad to see a resolution to the situation, even if that might be ‘terrible‘ to admit.
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“Yes, we can move on now. I think most of us that have been here the last six weeks, we have moved on, just from, we have enough to worry about. Getting over last year, and then coming in here and learning a new scheme and new concepts, like we had to press on,” Mailata said via The Athletic's Zach Berman.
“So that's what we were doing. I think this is more of a — it sounds terrible — but like, thank God it's over. It was a slow pain of just, is he in, is he out? We didn't really know, and that really wasn't our focus as a team, our team, especially on offense. But we got to keep these wheels moving, we got new guys coming in, we got rookies coming in again, we got to build that culture every year.”
On the field, it's hard to argue with what Brown brought to the table, as he turned in one of the best, if not the very best, four-year runs of any Eagles wide receiver in franchise history. But in the end, Brown got what he wanted, Roseman brought back a package that worked for him, and players like Mailata can move forward learning the scheme of “evil genius” Sean Mannion, which is what most hope to do in OTAs anyway.
While AJ Brown has only been a member of the New England Patriots for about a day, it's felt like he's been off the Philadelphia Eagles roster for months now, with Howie Roseman and Eliot Wolf engaging in trade conversations around the star wide receiver all the way back in March that couldn't be executed until June 1 due to the cap ramifications.