When the Eagles and Patriots swung the A.J. Brown deal on June 1, it looked like the kind of trade that could help both sides.
Philadelphia got rid of a star receiver who didn’t seem to be clicking with Jalen Hurts and Nick Sirianni. New England landed a true No. 1 target for Drake Maye and reunited Brown with Mike Vrabel, his former Titans coach.
Six weeks later, that optimism has aged badly for both teams.
Brown is back on the field after a high ankle sprain kept him out from Week 1 through Week 5, but his return did not change the larger picture. In Sunday’s 26-19 win over the Jets, the Patriots got three touchdown passes from Maye and still barely got anything from Brown, who finished with three catches for 27 yards.
He was targeted a team-high 10 times, but he still ended up as New England’s fourth-leading receiver. Worse, he had a career-high three drops and nearly turned the game into a mess on the Jets’ last-gasp onside kick.
Across two games, Brown has only six catches for 53 yards.
That kind of output makes the price look steep. The Patriots sent a 2027 fifth-round pick and a 2028 first-rounder to Philadelphia for a 29-year-old receiver with a long injury history, and they may not be feeling the pain of that loss yet, but it is there. Brown doesn’t have the trust level with Maye that the Patriots hoped for, and when New England is moving the ball the way it has, he isn’t essential to the offense.
Maye had already started finding a groove without him in Week 4 against the Bills and Week 5 against the Raiders. Against the Jets, the production came from elsewhere again.
Romeo Doubs opened the scoring on a 46-yard pass from Maye before leaving with a shoulder injury. Demario Douglas led the Patriots with seven catches for 86 yards and a touchdown, while Hunter Henry added four catches for 48 yards and a score.
New England also ran for 148 yards.
The Eagles’ side of the equation hasn’t looked much better.
Philadelphia was without Hurts for the first time this season on Sunday because of a superficial blood clot, and the offense clearly missed the rushing threat he brings at quarterback. Tanner McKee, the backup, had a tough afternoon in a 25-14 home loss to the Panthers, and the Eagles are now 2-4 after their third straight defeat.
DeVonta Smith returned from hamstring and toe injuries and did his part, finishing with seven catches for 75 yards and a touchdown on 14 targets. But the rest of the receiver group couldn’t supply enough help. Dontayvion Wicks, Makai Lemon, Darius Cooper and Elijah Moore combined for seven catches and 56 yards on 14 targets.
That matters because the Eagles are already stretched thin elsewhere. They’re still without Saquon Barkley and their top two backups at running back, and they have also had to deal with injuries to Goedert, Smith and now Hurts. Without another dangerous pass-catcher to force defenses to account for more than one threat, Philadelphia has been left scrambling.
That’s where Brown’s absence really shows up. The Eagles drafted Makai Lemon with the No. 20 overall pick in April, a move that pointed toward moving on from Brown soon after.
But Lemon has not given them much so far. Through six games, he has 18 catches for 127 yards on 27 targets and has not scored a touchdown.
He has spent a lot of time behind Wicks and the surprising big-play contribution from Cooper.
Brown might have been a headache in Philadelphia, and his durability issues in New England still matter. But the trade has not worked the way either team wanted. Brown has not become the missing piece for the Patriots, and the Eagles are feeling his absence at exactly the wrong time.
The revised verdict is harsh for both sides: New England gets a D, and Philadelphia gets a C.
In Other News...
Jordan Mailata Just Put Eagles Offense On Notice
The Eagles are trying to steady themselves after a 25-14 loss to the Panthers, a game that underscored how thin the margin gets when key pieces are unavailable. Without Jalen Hurts and Saquon Barkley, Philadelphia has had to lean harder on the rest of the roster, and Jordan Mailata made clear the offense cannot afford to let the details slip while both players work through injuries and their return timelines stay unclear.
Mailata framed the fix in simple terms: the Eagles need better focus and effort to clean up the kind of mistakes that stall drives and pile up pressure on everyone else. With Dallas next on the schedule on October 26, Philadelphia does not have much time to sort out its rhythm, especially with Hurts calf issue and Barkleys hamstring injury still hanging over the offense. [Read more 🡒]
Jordan Mailata Just Put The Eagles Biggest Problem On Blast
The Eagles defense spent too much time chasing the Panthers in the 25-14 loss, and the imbalance showed up in a way that has become hard to ignore. With the offense sputtering on the ground and piling up penalties, Philadelphias front seven wound up absorbing the kind of workload that wears a team down long before the fourth quarter arrives.
Jordan Mailata did not shy away from saying the quiet part out loud after the game. The left tackle pointed to the offenses lack of discipline and accountability as a major reason the defense was left in that spot, underscoring how much the Eagles need the unit on the other side of the ball to clean up its act before the strain starts showing up in even bigger ways. [Read more 🡒]
Eagles Have An Under Center Problem They Cant Ignore
The Eagles work from under center has become hard to ignore after the loss to Carolina, where the offense leaned on play-action and got almost nothing out of it. The game plan included five under-center dropbacks, and none of those throws turned into completions as the pocket got squeezed and the rhythm never really showed up. It fit a larger pattern for Philadelphia this season, one that has made the most traditional part of the playbook look far less dependable than the shotgun looks this offense usually prefers.
Jalen Hurts has been part of the issue, too, with the numbers showing far less success when he is asked to operate from under center instead of in shotgun. Tanner McKee has had similar trouble in those situations, which leaves the Eagles with an uncomfortable question about how much of the offense can still live in that space. For a team trying to stay balanced and keep defenses honest, the under-center package is starting to look like a problem that cannot just be brushed aside. [Read more 🡒]