New England Patriots
A.J. Brown — who grew up as a Patriots fan in Mississippi — will give Drake Maye and New England’s offense a significant boost moving forward.
A.J. Brown won a Super Bowl with the Eagles in February 2025. AP Photo/Ashley Landis
June 1, 2026 | 4:53 PM
8 minutes to read
Drake Maye has a new No. 1 wideout to throw to.
The New England Patriots completed a long-awaited blockbuster trade on Monday afternoon, sending a 2028 first-round pick and 2027 fifth-round selection to the Philadelphia Eagles in exchange for star wide receiver A.J. Brown.
After months of speculation and talk of a handshake agreement being in the works between New England and Philly, Brown is finally in Foxborough — and should give New England’s already explosive offense another major boost moving forward.
Here are five things to know about the 28-year-old star receiver:
He’s been one of the best wide receivers in the league for years
Brown’s track record of torching opposing defenses and carving up defensive backs in man coverage speaks for itself.
A second-round pick (No. 51 overall) in 2019 out of Ole Miss, Brown immediately established himself as a force to be reckoned with across three seasons with the Titans — averaging a league-best 20.2 yards per catch as a rookie and reeling in 24 touchdowns over 43 games with Tennessee.
Brown took another major step forward after the Eagles traded for him in April 2022, becoming Jalen Hurts’ top target en route to two Super Bowl runs.
Despite coming up short against the Chiefs in Super Bowl LVII, Brown had six catches for 96 yards and a touchdown in the 38-35 setback in Arizona.
Both Brown and the Eagles got over the hump against Patrick Mahomes and Kansas City just two seasons later in Super Bowl LIX — with Brown recording another touchdown in a 40-22 triumph in New Orleans.
In total, Brown has surpassed 1,000 or more receiving yards in six of his seven full seasons in the NFL — including all four years in Philly. Over his four seasons with the Eagles, Brown averaged 84 catches, 1,258 yards, and eight touchdowns a year.
Since entering the league in 2019, Brown ranks fourth in the NFL in both receiving yards (8,029) and touchdown catches (56).
For a Patriots team that has only had two players surpass 1,000 receiving yards in the last seven seasons (Julian Edelman in 2019, Stefon Diggs in 2025), a player like Brown should be a breath of fresh air — and give Maye and the Patriots an explosive target for the next few seasons.
Brown in particular has excelled at beating man coverage across his stints with the Titans and Eagles, using his 6-foot-1, 226-pound frame to outmuscle smaller defensive backs and snag contested balls and using his speed to gain chunk yardage after the catch.
A.J. Brown recorded a 38.0% target rate and averaged 3.6 yards per route against press coverage this season, both are the highest marks among receivers with at least 75 such routes.
The Chiefs aligned their outside cornerbacks in press on a league-high 51.5% of snaps this… pic.twitter.com/XgOuNSIAwe
— Next Gen Stats (@NextGenStats) February 5, 2025
Given Maye’s ability to regularly dissect man coverage this past season, adding a pair of shifty (but strong) receiving targets over the offseason in Brown and Romeo Doubs stands as a sizable lift for New England’s wideout corps.
Brown is already familiar with Mike Vrabel
Brown has plenty of history with Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel, considering that he played for him during his first three years in the NFL with the Tennessee Titans.
Speaking at the NFL Scouting Combine in February, Vrabel spoke highly of Brown and acknowledged that the duo still has a close relationship to this day.
“It has meant a lot,” Vrabel said of his relationship with Brown. “I’ve watched him grow. I’ve watched him mature. I’m proud of him. I’m proud of the father that he is, and the husband (that he is). That has nothing to do with where he plays, or where he played. So those are the things that are important.
“We reach out and text each other during the things that happen good to each other, and sometimes things don’t go so well for the people you’re close with and you text those as well. It’s a two-way street of support and reminders of what got us to where we are here today.”
Despite those close ties, Brown admitted on the “Dudes on Dudes” podcast with Julian Edelman and Rob Gronkowski that he initially had to get used to Vrabel’s energetic and exacting approach as a head coach in Tennessee.
“So, [Vrabel] is the type of coach who, he’s going to call on you in the meetings,” Brown said. “He’s going to make sure you’re staying engaged and he’s going to go over the keys to victory for the week. You better know them like the back of your hand.”
“I used to write in my notebook — because at the time I didn’t really like [Vrabel] — I didn’t like him, I’ll admit it, he knows that. So, I used to write ‘I hate [Vrabel], I hate [Vrabel], I hate [Vrabel],” Brown added of what he’d scribble in his notebook to make it look like he was paying attention.
Eventually, Vrabel left a big impression on Brown, and vice versa.
Vrabel did little to hide his displeasure in the Titans’ draft room after Tennessee traded Brown to Philly for a 2022 first-round pick (Treylon Burks) and a third-round selection.
”Nobody wanted to have (Brown) walk out of (Tennessee),” Vrabel said on the “Bussin’ With The Boys” Podcast in August. “It didn’t work out. It’s disappointing. The thing that I am most proud of is the relationship with him and the players that I’ve coached.”
Brown was a Patriots fan growing up
He hails from Starkville, Mississippi, but Brown has made it known on multiple occasions that he was an ardent supporter of the Patriots growing up.
Granted, rooting for Tom Brady, Bill Belichick, and a two-decade dynasty made for an easy choice, given how often New England was featured in primetime matches and pitched playoff showdowns.
But, speaking on “Dudes on Dudes”, Brown gave another reason for rooting for the Patriots.
“When I was younger, I wanted to do everything like my older cousin, and he was a big Patriots fan,” Brown said. “It was that simple. Nothing complex about it.”
Given his affinity for the Patriots, Brown was expecting to hear his name called by New England during the 2019 NFL Draft — especially with New England presumably in range to select him with the 32nd (and final) pick in the first round.
During a June 2020 interview on “Bussin’ With The Boys,” Brown admitted that he fully expected to get a call from Foxborough.
“I just knew I was going to the Patriots, because I was a big Patriots fan,” Brown said of waiting for that pick.
“I got a phone call and I was like ‘This is it.’ But it wasn’t it, it was my agent. And he was like ‘Just sit tight.’ And I’m like ‘OK.’ He was like ‘They finna take a receiver.’ And I’m like ‘OK, cool, bet.’ I just saw that the time just kept going down on the Patriots clock. And I was like ‘Uhh, they tripping. I don’t know what the hell is going on.’”
New England did take a receiver … but chose Arizona State’s N’Keal Harry instead.
“So they end up picking, it said the pick was in. I know I ain’t got a phone call by now. So I’m like ‘This s*** is over.’ So I told my brother, I told D, I said ‘Bro, let’s go.’ And I left everybody at the house and went home. I went in the closet and cried my eyes out. I swear.”
While Brown — taken later in the second round by the Titans — quickly blossomed into a star player, Harry recorded only 598 yards and four touchdowns over three seasons in New England before getting dealt for a seventh-round pick in 2022.
He had a rocky end to his tenure in Philly
For all that both Brown and the Eagles accomplished together over the last four seasons, his time in Philly was often rife with distractions and drama — due in large part to Brown’s gripes over his role in the team’s offense.
Brown made his frustrations abundantly clear both on the sideline and in front of the media in his final years with the team.
Perhaps the most famous occasion of Brown’s discontent with his former team came in 2025, with the wideout going viral for reading the self-help book “Inner Excellence” by Jim Murphy on the sidelines during a playoff game.
While some viewed Brown — who had only one catch for 10 yards on three targets at the time — as highlighting his frustrations with his quick reading session, he said that he often reads during games to mentally rest and refocus.
Brown continued to butt heads with the Eagles’ offensive approach this past season, with Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie meeting personally with Brown in November 2025 to hash out his concerns over his role on the team.
“It’s not just solely about my situation. I want to win too,” Brown told Philadelphia reporters that month. “I think if we’re really focused on winning and doing our job, we can’t just keep slapping a Band-Aid over the defense doing their job and getting us out of trouble. At what point are we going to pick up our slack as an offense?
“That’s what I’m getting at. … You can’t keep slapping a Band-Aid over that and expect to win late in the year and think you’re going to go to that at the end of the year. It’s not going to f—ing happen.”
Brown also said he was “not apologizing” for comments made in a Madden video with streamer Janky Rondo in November, with the wideout saying that his current situation was a “s— show”.
Amid several reported trade rumors, Brown also appeared to hit a breaking point with his QB in Hurts and his ability to conduct the Eagles’ offense.
During media availability last week, Hurts was asked about what a Brown trade would mean for both him and the Eagles.
“Picked the right question to sip [my water] on, huh?” Hurts joked.
He was also a standout baseball player
Brown’s talents aren’t just limited to the football field.
As a top recruit in both baseball and football at Starkville High School, Brown became just the second player, after Kyler Murray, to play in both the Under Armour All-America Football Game and the Under Armour All-America Baseball Game.
Despite his profile as a potential star wideout at the next level, Brown was selected by the San Diego Padres as a fleet-footed outfielder in the 19th round of the 2016 MLB Draft.
“It was like watching a grown man on a field of high schoolers,” Padres area scout Stephen Moritz told MLB.com of Brown’s profile as a baseball player. “Like, ‘Oh my God, this dude just scored from first, easy.’ … The first time I saw him, I knew this was a different kind of athlete than 99 percent of the players we were going to scout.”
Even though Brown stuck with football at Ole Miss, he participated in San Diego’s extended Spring Training in Arizona after spring practice wrapped following his freshman and sophomore years of college.
Brown credited his time playing baseball for helping him develop into the star wideout he is today.
“I tell a lot of guys man, you catch the ball with your eyes,” Brown told ESPN in 2020. “Baseball really helped me out with that for football. When you’re tracking a ball, especially a deep ball, it helped me a lot. I played center field in baseball. On a deep pass in football, you judge it and go track it just like a center fielder.”
If only Monday’s trade was struck earlier, Brown would have been a force on the diamond during Sunday’s MayeDay Family Foundation’s Celebrity Softball Game at Polar Park.
Conor Ryan is a staff writer covering the Bruins, Celtics, Patriots, and Red Sox for Boston.com, a role he has held since 2023.
Sign up for the Today newsletter
Get everything you need to know to start your day, delivered right to your inbox every morning.
