Trying to make sense of it all.
OK, a couple of points to counter al all the negativity I've heard over the last couple of days on 2 points. First the issue of Brown's "degenerative knee condition" and second, the compensation we gave the Eagles, including the "were bidding against ourselves" crowd.
1 I too was as concerned as the next guy worrying about Brown's SUPPOSED chronic knee condition. I feel a LOT better after I took about 2 minutes to do a little research to debunk that entire hot take, First I found out that across his entire 8 previous seasons in the NFL, Brown has missed 12 games and only 4 during his time in Philly. That kind of availability doesn't happen to guys with chronic knee injuries.
I think the story evolved from speculation after it was reported he took shots to his knee in their run up to the Superbowl. Now that was TWO seasons ago now and no further shots to the knee reports have been reported since. Brown played all 17 games last season and hasn't missed a playoff game in his entire career.
The other place this gross speculation took root was from the hot take that his "chronic knee problem" was the reason the Rams dropped out of a run at trading for Brown. It has since been reported that they real reason they dropped out was they couldn't get a trade for Adams done.
Now in both cases the degenerative knee story made some logic, so you can see how it made SOME sense and was credible speculation, BUT if you took but a couple of minutes to try and look for any FACTS to support that speculation, you would be hard pressed to find ANY. More likely you will find more reasons to debunk it. Also note, I'm not saying it's not the issue some are making it just because Brown said so in a presser. Players are well known liars when it comes to injury reports. But in this case, the FACTS back him up.
2. As far as "Howie made a fool out of Wolfe" crowd is concerned, I feel they are MOSTLY dead wrong. In no way did Roseman get full first round value for Brown. To do that he would have had to get a 2026 pick and THAT would have been #31. He didn't even get a 2027 pick. He has to wait until 2028 to collect the vast bulk of his compensation.
And what exactly will that compensation be. Most likely in 2028 it will be a pick in the mid 20"s (we hope) or later, which is a place where you HOPE you will find an eventual long-term starter within 3 seasons. History tells us, IIRC, that you will have about a 60% chance of meeting that goal. We've all seen the list of success and failures here, so there's no need to repeat them. NOT having one will hurt, but we've had enough seasons without a first to see that your team isn't going to collapse not having one once in a great while. This ISN'T going send our whole rebuild into catastrophe, as if it had been in 26 or 27. I read something his week that pointed out the Rams have something like 10 starters who were drafted between the 2nd and 6th rounds and most weren't in the 2nd.
Now losing that 5th next year, DOES piss me off a bit, but that's a nitpick more than a sign of a bad deal. Bottom Line: a first rounder that is TWO years in the future does NOT have the same value as a first rounder in the same year as it would have been 2 full seasons later. Let us not forget what we got in return. We got the TRUE #1 WR the "cult" has been screaming for the better part of 2 decades. We got the perfect guy for our young and unfinished superstar potential QB. A guy who will help Maye more than Maye will help him and changes the makeup of our WR room a LOT more than what Diggs did, and Diggs did a remarkable job.
I expect this will give us 3 quality years of WR play. (This comes from a chart that was posted that showed how WR's generally age.) According to it WR's generally peak at 29, but the decline the next 2 seasons is very gradual, before it drops off more steeply after 32.
That should give a solid 3-year window before Brown's play recedes into the current Davonte Adams level of play. (which is more physical than explosive) and wind down his career as more of a contributor than focus
