The New England Patriots should be one of many teams with their eyes glued on the unfolding drama involving Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver A.J. Brown and quarterback Jalen Hurts.
It’s been a shocking revelation considering the Eagles are sitting at 11-2 as a likely favorite to make it to the NFC Championship Game.
However, the floodgates of speculation opened after the Eagles barely survived a run-in with the struggling Carolina Panthers last week. Hurts finished the game with 108 passing yards and two touchdowns. That led to pedestrian numbers by Brown, who finished with only four catches for 43 yards.
After the game, the two-time All-Pro receiver was asked what the offense needed to improve on, and he bluntly said the team needed to get better at “passing.”
That led to speculation that trouble could be brewing between Brown and Hurts. Things spiraled even further when Eagles defensive end Brandon Graham revealed on “The Brandon Graham Show” that things had changed between Brown and Hurts.
“They was friends before this, but things have changed,” said Graham.
The Eagles’ star defender recently apologized and walked back those comments, via ESPN’s Tim McManus.
Regardless, the Patriots will be one of many teams looking to add a big-time playmaker on offense in 2025. They are projected to have the most salary cap space in the NFL next year, and it would make sense for them to want to pair quarterback Drake Maye with a proven star wide receiver talent like Brown.
This move would be much more complicated than simply trying to sign Tee Higgins off the free agent market. The Eagles would obviously want something in return for Brown that would likely include high draft compensation.
With that said, Brown is more of a sure thing as a true No. 1 receiving option than Higgins. If there is a chance for the Patriots to sign him, they should do whatever they can to make it happen.
Brown, who was a Patriots fan growing up, admitted he was disappointed when the team didn’t draft him in 2019. The team made the infamous mistake of using a first-round pick on N’Keal Harry.
They could bury that mistake for good if they could somehow trade for Brown in the offseason. That’s obviously assuming he’s even available for trade.
Winning cures everything in the NFL, and if the Eagles go on a Super Bowl run, all of this break-up talk will probably seem like one bad dream from long ago.
