PATRIOTS NEWS OFFICIAL: Patriots Finally Acquire AJ Brown

[Give Kraft A Hand]

The guy grew up a Patriots fan and has always wanted to be here. As far as I’m concerned this is a clean slate and he’s now a Patriot. LFG

 

[One-If-By-Sea]

Now the question is how is your defense. Infielder or outfielder? How’s the cannon? Are you a Roger Dorn ole kinda defender or are you gonna take one off the chest to keep it in front?

My defense is better than my hitting - that is why I am at the batting cage. I play outfield and rarely miss a ball in the air or on the ground. I comfortably throw to second. No-one runs on my arm .

 

[Steve102]

To all the worry warts about that 2028ist Rounder...Remember FA is part of the process...just trust the process.

You'll pull a Hollins flip/flop and want the R1 back right around 4/1/28.

 

[TommyD4207]

You'll pull a Hollins flip/flop and want the R1 back right around 4/1/28.

Gotta be tough, got the CoV Player...but how to criticize the team at the same time...

 

[mikey m]

What a line. Hilarious.

Other posters said the knee might have healed.

Brown is not 100% and by the end of the year we have no idea how effective he will be. Big risk.

We also have no idea how effective pick 24+ will be in 2 years. Big risk to bank on that and not add a legitimate WR1 for your young QB now.

 

[Steve102]

Gotta be tough, got the CoV Player...but how to criticize the team at the same time...

Not following bud

 

[DoubleDeluxe]

My defense is better than my hitting - that is why I am at the batting cage. I play outfield and rarely miss a ball in the air or on the ground. I comfortably throw to second. No-one runs on my arm .

What level ball do you play?
I have a buddy who went to Belmont Abbey on a full ride. Div II, but they were good back in the day.
We are older now, but he plays in a mens rec league in Az that is highly competitive, lots of ex MLB guys in his league.

 

[Bill Lee]

They’ll certainly have work to do they’re a very one dimensional offense. They’ve essentially replaced AJ Brown with Hollywood Brown and Elijah Moore and Saquon has a lot of mileage, injury history and will be 30.

Yep, and they didn't replace Jalen Hurts, so very one dimensional, perhaps even zero dimensional.

 

[Huckleberry1]

Yep. We need to discount the "attitude" stuff. The OC they had last year was an unimaginative idiot. Yes, Hurts was allowed to ad-lib which really caused problems with the offense. Talk to the knowledgeable Iggles fans. They'll say the same thing.

I do think AJ kinda threw in the towel during the playoff game but it never should have gotten to that point.

I agree. And no one has a better take on his attitude than Vrabel. He wouldn't have made that trade if he didn't believe Brown would come in and play his ass off.

 

[Huckleberry1]

I'm sure the Vikings will be happy to trade us Jefferson for the right price. Which probably is Drake Maye.

There is no trade price I would put on or take for Drake Maye. They could offer 10 1st round picks and I would ignore it.

 

[mikey m]

Unfortunately that’s a very incomplete article and analysis by the author.

He makes the comment about how the cap charges are spread through the void years. But then he mentions how the Pats can get out of the contract after 2028 with little investment but fails to realize that the void year cap charges get accelerated to the current year (or the current year and the next year, depending on timing and approach) when a player is cut.

Absent a restructured contract, there will be a large cap hit at the end.

From my understanding, we can also elect to pay Brown more this/ next year from the future option bonus sums while we still have plenty of cap space and don’t have to pay Drake. May hurt the short term, but with how much room we have I feel like we could do that and still make another move if we wanted (Josh Sweat?)

 

[50-yard-line]

Eagles are the biggest loser in this. They are losing their best WR which going to put a lot of attention on Smith. Hurts already has a hard time locating open receivers and Barkley could fall off a cliff tomorrow. They can't use the pick for until 2028. Brown leaving does absolutely nothing for the team for this season and 2027.

Eagles will be resetting in soon as their Super Bowl window is just about shut. The only way they get lucky again is if the rest of the NFC implodes like they did in 2024.

Not disagreeing, but I see it as a good trade for both teams - because the Eagles really had no choice but to get rid of him. Brown and Hurts were not compatible (and apparently didn't much like each other).

Roseman got a 4-year rental on Brown for minor cost. Eagles still won their Brown experience, and the Pats get a true force on offense who should make all the rest of the O better.

 

[Uptown]

 

[Rob0729]

Apparently, when the Rams were in the mix, the Rams were the ones who originally were willing to part with a 2028 first round pick that set the market. They backed out because they couldn't pull off a deal to trade Devonte Adams.

 

[One-If-By-Sea]

Issue is really the cause of the fluid accumulation. Nobody has released any data as to the underlying medical cause other than that is “chronic and degenerative.”

If it’s osteoarthritis, that’s going to be slowly progressive and more of a problem for him personally after his career is over. Rheumatoid, recurrent tendonitis or gout are more likely to be problematic while he’s still a patriot.

But, I personally am trying to be positive today. It’s a guy who desperately wanted to be a Patriot who will make Drake better. There will be plenty of time later to lament who we could have drafted with the picks

I agree with mostly all of that (see below). But I think it is reasonable to apply some reasoning to the situation as we know it.

A #1 WR like AJB, if healthy, commands a #1 draft pick at the very least. We traded for Cooks and it cost a Round 1 draft pick and then traded Cooks away the next year for a Round 1 draft pick. AJB is clearly worth a first round draft pick if Cooks commanded a 1st round pick.

We traded a 1st and 5th round draft pick in 2028 for AJB. Commonly a draft pick a year later equates to one less round a year earlier. So we traded an equivalent of a 2nd and 6th round 2027 draft pick for AJB. Why did we not trade a 1st round pick?

Additionally the Eagles are taking the majority of AJB's 2026 and 2027 cap hits and the Pats only have a cap hit of $7M this year and $11M next year. That should drive the trade value of AJB even higher, but it didn't. Why?

Note that our 2028 draft pick will not be a high pick, and there are 30 other teams that passed on offering thier 2028 1st round pick. Why did every other GM pass on trading for AJB?

So, it is reasonable to state 1. AJB is worth at the very least a 1st round pick (like Cooks), but the Eagles agreed to the equivalent of a 2nd and 6th round pick. Why? Also in normal circumstances the Pats would take a full cap charge of $25M to $30M, but the Eagles are taking part of the cap charge and leaving the Pats with a cap hit of $7M and $11M in 2026 and 2027. Why would the Eagles take that cap hit with no compensation and no other franchise wants that benefit? Why?

The most likely answer to all of the above is that AJB's knee is degenerative, the Eagles know every other team will find that out with a physical so they are telling the other teams upfront, and no-one wants that medical risk. So the Pats get a two part discount. 1. The Pats trade the equivalent of a 2nd and 6th in 2027 because the Eagles want to unload the AJB's knee risk AND 2. The Eagles accept an additional cap hit to again facilitate the trade because of AJB's knee issues.

That reasoning upsets a lot of PatsFans posters. @patfanken said I sound like Trump making a reasoned insight like the above (Ken is a bit NUTS). Others said that AI is commonly wrong and the Pats doctors' physical will screen for a degenerative knee issue (Pats management already knows about the knee issue). But the Drs screening is not relevant - the Pats (Vrabel) are accepting damaged goods at a discount. Will it work out? I hope so. Do we have to be silly and not reason the situation so we feel good? Do we have to pretend that we are not trading at a discount for damaged goods?

In closing, the issue (as you wrote) is not the reason for the fluid accumulation. All signs point to AJB's knee having a degenerative issue. The issue is what discount do the Pats accept to trade for a #1 WR with a degenerative knee issue. And we now know what the discount is, a 2nd and 6th draft pick and a greatly reduced cap hit.

I hope that realization does not upset you.

 

[One-If-By-Sea]

We also have no idea how effective pick 24+ will be in 2 years. Big risk to bank on that and not add a legitimate WR1 for your young QB now.

It is more complicated than that. I just posted a long explanation below. Please read that. I hope the trade works out.

 

[One-If-By-Sea]

What level ball do you play?

I play Senior softball which means it is for old ****S! I am not a natural athlete, I am an engineer. Having said that I have an advantage later in life - I am slender, have always run well (my youngest daughter had a 100% track scholarship), and I have never had a significant injury. So as I get older, I am rising in the level of competition. I sometimes travel outside MA to play with the guys, but I do not travel too much. I play at the highest level in Central MA, but I am at the bottom of the roster at the highest level.

I have a buddy who went to Belmont Abbey on a full ride. Div II, but they were good back in the day.
We are older now, but he plays in a mens rec league in Az that is highly competitive, lots of ex MLB guys in his league.

I would never be able to compete with ex-MLB guys, but maybe in my 70s or 80s things will change . Unfortunately, ex-athletes are saddled with injury issues that become major issues later in life - I do not have those issues. I get relatively better every year, but only because the other guys with previous injuries are decaying fast than me - LOL. It is true. I started at the Div.3 level and am now at the Div. 1 level only because the other guys are falling by the wayside and I keep going to yoga, the gym, and the batting cage.

 

[One-If-By-Sea]

Of course its a risk, that is why AJB was available in the first place. No one is trading us Chase or Jefferson, cause they don't have any risks associated with them and hence no GM in their right mind would try to get rid of them.

But guess what, drafting a guy at the bottom of Rd 1 is also a big risk because they have never played in the NFL. May also cone with an injury history or attitude problems. AJB has dominated in the NFL, at least we know that much.

The physical can take care of the medical evaluation, if there are serious problems with AJBs knee, I am sure NE can nix the trade.

If there is one place where AJB should not be a malcontent its here, the team he grew up rooting for and playing for a coach he has an extensive history with.

Yes, this is a gamble, no question about it. But it is a gamble with a very high potential of paying off by us raising the Lombardi trophy.

I responded to another post in detail farther down (or above). Yes, it is a calculated gamble, but that does not mean it will work out. There are serious problems with AJB's knee, do not be fooled, and the Pats DRs will not reject the trade because we are getting a HUGE discount thgat Vrabel thinks he can manage. I have no idea if Vrabel is right or wrong. We will see. But there is no doubt there is a knee issue - see my explanation below (or maybe it is above - HaHa).

 

[mayoclinic]

Karen Guregian: 5 factors will determine success or failure of A.J. Brown trade

Examining what will make the A.J. Brown trade a success or failure for the Patriots.

sports.yahoo.com

 

[sb1]

I think some posters are still under the impression TB12 is here so we still don't need to pay for elite talent like other teams and get by instead drafting JAGs and never-will-be receivers which we've done since 2002 when Branch was drafted cause Tom will make them all better. Right.

Drake isn't Tom. Talent matters. Bill's way of doing things is long in the rear view mirror.