Adam Schefter is All In on AJ Brown Coming to the Patriots
Stacy Revere. Getty Images.Yesterday, the man in charge of the Patriots - not that one, the other one - met with the press for a pre-draft press conference and was asked the question on everyone's mind this offseason. And Eliot Wolf handled it as diplomatically as an NFL GM can without running afoul of Field Marshall Goodell's Tampering Police:
" … with the player you mentioned." Well done, good sir. That's how you handle that tricky question. Stepping around that backyard full of rakes without stepping on one. With the classic non-denial denial that doesn't leave any fingerprints. Spoken like a true NFL GM legacy.
Which begs the question of whether this trade is still in the works. A lot of the reporting about Brown-to-NE seemed to have grown quiet as of late. One prominent reporter who was all over the deal in every sense of the word has only one post on her X account in the last week. So who knows what to make of her or how she got her information?
Instead, we turn to the most inside of NFL Insiders. Who to a man are all saying similar things. making this trade sound like both sides are just waiting to sign the Purchase and Sale.
From Ian Rappoport hearing the same thing we all heard when The Wolf handled that question the way he did:
To Adam Schefter, who's been conducting a One-Insider Media Tour over the last couple of days. Kicked off by the Eagles' acquisition of Dontayvion Wicks over the weekend:
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… more manageable for the Eagles.
… making Brown all the more expendable. And coming three weeks after they picked up Hollywood Brown and a couple of weeks after they signed Elijah Moore away from the Bills, it's becoming clearer by the week Howie Roseman is preparing his team for a post-AJ Brown world. As Schefter is saying to anyone puts him on camera:
“Well, Hannah, just like Field said, we haven't heard the Eagles come out and say we're not trading AJ Brown. We have yet to hear the New England Patriots, when AJ Brown's name comes up, do anything other than say, ‘We keep doors open, we respect the player, can't talk about other players, but here's a player who's been great around the league.
“And so both sides continue to give the story oxygen whenever they're given the opportunity. It hasn't gone away. It's still sitting out there. It'll be sitting out there for a while right now. I do not expect anything here in the next couple of weeks."
So I think we're losing the plot if we're worried about what NFL reporter got what information from whom. Or what he or she might have done to get those scoops.
What's truly important is that every respected pro football reporter regardless of how they ply the trade of journalism, is singing from the same songbook. And the chorus is in harmony on the fact that AJ Brown coming to New England is a fait accompli. That a deal is already in place, the two sides just have to wait for Brown's Sell By Date, so Philly can save cap space and take less of a dead cap hit.
And the conversations about where Drake Maye and Brown will rank among the NFL's best QB/WR hookups has already begun. Chris Simms says Top 10:
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… I'm sure I'll be going higher once the signatures are dry on the line which is dotted. I'll save such talk until June, since it's usually the deadest time of the NFL calendar. But it won't be for the Patriots. The defending AFC champions. The most improved team in the 2025 season. And once this goes through, perhaps the most improved team of 2026 too. The most improved contending team, anyway.
So let me say in advance that we'll owe a huge debt of gratitude to Mike Vrabel when it happens. The NFL Coach of the Year and the guy who hugged his way to landing us one of the best receivers in the NFL.
Wesley Hitt. Getty Images.
Icon Sportswire. Getty Images.That's my head coach. For now, we wait. But it's going to be a hell of spring.