The Eagles’ 2026 season has gone off the rails, but the A.J. Brown move is still looking like a win for Philadelphia.
With Jalen Hurts out for the year and DeVonta Smith and Saquon Barkley also dealing with injuries, the Eagles are staring at a rough finish instead of a postseason push. Still, even in a season like this, the decision to move Brown continues to age well.
Brown is now expected to miss Week 8 against the Miami Dolphins because of a knee injury, ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported. He did not practice Wednesday or Thursday, and this will be his fifth missed game of the season because of a new injury. Philadelphia won’t receive the first-round pick from the trade until the 2028 draft, but the payoff already looks justified.
The bigger picture for the Eagles is simple: even if Brown were still in Philadelphia, it likely wouldn’t have changed much. Hurts is sidelined, Smith is hurt, and Brown was already unhappy with how things were going in Philly. If he were still on the roster, the team would be dealing with that frustration on top of everything else.
Brown spent plenty of time taking shots at the Eagles when he spoke to the media, and that kind of tension would have only grown as the losses piled up in 2026. Instead, Philadelphia got a first-round pick back in the deal.
The knee issue is not exactly a surprise to the Eagles, either. It’s something Brown has dealt with for years, and people inside the organization knew about it. New England’s team doctors approved the trade before it happened, but the fact that the problem is flaring up again is hardly encouraging.
That knee has been an ongoing concern over the last couple of years, and it’s not the sort of thing that tends to improve, especially for a receiver who turns 30 in June.
Brown is a physical receiver at 6-foot-1 and 226 pounds, and that style doesn’t do him any favors with a knee issue. Add in the high-ankle sprain that is still bothering him, and it has turned into a rough season all around.
Brown has appeared in three games for the Pats this year, with nine catches on 20 targets for 101 yards and no touchdowns. Fox Sports also reported that he has three drops. He still has no clear timetable for how long he’ll be out with the knee injury, but the issue is going to follow him the rest of the season alongside the ankle problem.
The Ole Miss product has not looked like the same player he was in Philly, and that only reinforces how well the Eagles’ decision has worked out. Brown’s problems are New England’s to handle now, and Philadelphia looks smart for moving on and landing a first-round pick in return. Brown has a degenerative knee condition, and it has already surfaced in New England within the first two months of the season.
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