With the 2026 NFL Draft over with and June 1 just one month away, most of the conversation surrounding the New England Patriots is inevitably circling back to what appears to be an inevitable trade for wide receiver AJ Brown.
It has long been presumed that a deal wouldn't come together until his dead cap hit was split over the next two seasons, becoming far more affordable for the Eagles to move on from him, and now that the date is nearing, it feels like it's only a matter of time before a trade is announced.
The problem is that the latest updates don't exactly support that, with NFL insider Adam Schefter fueling that the Patriots' connection to a deal is still viewed as the strongest, while ESPN's Jeremy Fowler isn't so sure that's the case.
That's not exactly the update Patriots fans were hoping for after watching the team pass on receivers in the draft, and hearing all the rumors linking the two teams for a deal for much of the past month.
An AJ Brown trade still feels inevitable, but it's far from official for the Patriots
Fowler noted that while a deal seems imminent, nothing has been made (unofficially) official to this point.
However, he does point out that a handshake agreement might have been made, and while that does mean something, it doesn't necessarily mean a different team won't swoop in and make a better offer to steal the deal.
"As one team source pointed out, the Patriots have nothing binding with the Philadelphia Eagles and A.J. Brown. No firm agreement is in place.
Now, could there be a wink-wink understanding? Certainly. But New England was free to make a move for a receiver, and it was on its radar in the first two rounds."
He further elaborates that New England were high on KC Concepcion leading up to and during the draft, but he was taken by the Browns at No. 24 instead. They then traded up for an offensive lineman and never selected a receiver over draft weekend, so the belief was that they were comfortable doing so because of Brown's inevitable trade.
There is a good chance that's true, just as Fowler stated, but there were also reports that the Eagles were nearing an agreement with the Rams earlier this offseason.
Because nothing is official, it's possible that Brown could wind up somewhere else for the 2026 season, as the Eagles have no reason to be loyal to the Patriots, and that would be an absolute disaster for their offense.
Unfortunately, we have one more month to wait before we definitively know whether a trade will happen. If it doesn't, they'll have to shift their focus to another receiver or risk putting out a worse offense than the one they ran in 2025, which struggled when the games mattered most.
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