As everyone in New England knows well by now, the Eagles and Patriots could consummate their trade of wide receiver A.J. Brown at any point after 4 p.m. on Monday, which is when the Eagles can move Brown to help ease the salary cap ramifications. All signs and information that I have point to this deal being done sooner rather than later. With that in mind, let’s look at the player the Patriots will likely acquire and answer a few key questions, like whether or not Brown is a No. 1 receiver and what his trade value should be. We watched four games from last season, looked back on some of his highlights in previous years, and acquired some NGS numbers that are pretty revealing. The takeaways and some film analysis:
His size and strength: The Eagles list Brown as 6-1 and 226 pounds. Coming out in the 2019 draft, he measured at 6 foot and a half, and 226 pounds. He ran a 4.49.
Simply put, they don’t make many receivers like Brown with his size, strength and speed for that size. Brown outweighs most cornerbacks by about 30 pounds. And his strength, from his upper body to his lower body, is a mismatch against pretty much all cornerbacks. Once he gets going, he is tough to bring down. Brown often wins just because of his size and strength, especially in the red zone. That’s not going away anytime soon. He bullies weaker cornerbacks.
Good hands catcher: Brown is a natural receiver of the ball as he uses his large (9 3/4 inches) and strong hands to snag the ball out of the air. Brown had some issues with drops early in his career — he posted a drop rate of 11.7 in 2021 and 8.4 in 2020 — but he’s been at 3.6% or under the past three seasons.
Still has enough speed and route running is good: Brown can gobble up cushion against zone rather easily, and can stop quickly to separate despite being so big. His releases against press coverage are very good and provide him with some room off the line.
He’s basically unstoppable on
