If the New England Patriots and Philadelphia Eagles are going to come together on a trade involving veteran wide receiver AJ Brown, at least the framework of the deal is already (likely) rather easy to figure out.
There have already been a ton of trades this offseason in the NFL, more than usual before the month of March. One of those trades sent Jaylen Waddle from the Patriots' AFC East rival Miami Dolphins to their AFC Championship counterparts, the Denver Broncos.
The trade involving Waddle, as well as a number of other recent receiver trades (including the previous AJ Brown trade), can serve as a copy-and-paste sort of situation for whenever this deal goes down...if it's going to go down, that is.
Patriots and Eagles can copy Broncos and Dolphins to get AJ Brown trade done
The Patriots recently released veteran backup quarterback Joshua Dobbs in a move that, at this point, is unrelated to an AJ Brown trade. Although they did open up the number 11 on their roster, so if you're the tinfoil hat type, then there's another piece of evidence to throw up on the board.
The Broncos and Dolphins came together for a deal involving Jaylen Waddle as the centerpiece that looked like this:
The Broncos gave up three selections in the 2026 NFL Draft to get Jaylen Waddle off the Dolphins' hands, and got a high fourth-round pick back in the deal as well. The Broncos were reportedly trying to give up a future 3rd-round pick in this trade, but settled on a 4th-round pick swap when the Dolphins wouldn't budge on getting a 2026 3rd.
The opportunity is there for the Patriots to just literally give the Eagles the exact same thing, but there is one complication that makes this a unique situation from the Waddle trade. More on that in a moment.
The Patriots could give the Eagles nearly the exact same haul of picks, given that they pick one spot behind the Broncos in every round and also have two picks in the 4th. They could give the Eagles the 31st, 95th, and 131st picks in exchange for Brown and the 114th overall pick (from Atlanta), and just call it a day.
The one complication is that, financially speaking, it makes way more sense for Eagles GM Howie Roseman to wait this out and do a trade after June 1. We know how much Roseman loves to make a deal, and he's historically been one of the most aggressive general managers in football, but is he willing to sacrifice immediate cap space for the instant gratification of upgrading his war chest in this year's draft?
The 2027 NFL Draft is already being touted as one of the most loaded draft classes in recent memory. And frankly, it's not out of the question that the Eagles could be looking to draft a quarterback next offseason if Jalen Hurts has another rough year in 2026.
What Roseman has to decide is likely whether or not he wants to take that package of picks for this year's draft and reload his roster immeidatley, or if he can stave off the temptation for instant gratification and take the risk that the Patriots will be picking lower in each round next year.
Regardless of what Roseman decides, if he's willing to deal Brown, the likelihood that the trade details will look pretty similar to the deal struck by the Broncos and Dolphins is pretty high. We just have to wait and see what year the picks will be in, and if there will be a tax on those picks if Roseman has to wait.