AJ Brown exit rumors are following the Carson Wentz playbook

Another day, another anonymously sourced story about AJ Brown wanting out of Philadelphia. Only this time, it isn’t the national media doing it. It’s Bleeding Green Nation, and it’s writer Joseph Santoliquito.

And the source of this information? Who knows. Joey never says. It’s the typical “sources close to the situation” bullshit that gets tossed out there so nobody has to actually attach their name to it.

BGN and the latest AJ Brown wants out rumor

Here’s what BGN reported:

“A.J. Brown asked for a trade numerous times this past season (as early as after the Philadelphia Eagles beat the Los Angeles Rams in Week 3), multiple sources confirmed to Bleeding Green Nation. Brown is coming off his worst season as a pro since 2021, when he caught a career-lows with 63 passes for 869 yards and five touchdowns. This season, he caught 78 passes for 1,003 yards, his lowest output since 2021.”

There are two schools of thought when it comes to this kind of reporting, and the Eagles fanbase always falls into one of these camps. Either it’s “if it’s anonymous, I don’t care, it could literally be anybody with an agenda,” or it’s “where there’s smoke, there’s fire.”

With the AJ Brown stuff, I always ask myself two questions: who benefits from leaking this information, and does it even pass the smell test?

Let’s start with the first one. If this report is true, the only person who benefits from leaking it is AJ Brown himself. If he really wants out, this is the only way he gets his way. Because if the team didn’t budge when he supposedly asked privately, public pressure is usually the next move. That’s how this works. You leak the frustration, you stir up the headlines, you force the conversation, and eventually you try to corner the organization into making a decision.

But does it even benefit AJ Brown to have this out there? I don’t think it does, because if he wanted out as early as Week 3, fresh off a win where he put up 100 yards and the Eagles were 3-0, it paints him as a genuinely stupid person.

At that point in time, the offense looked like it was starting to find its way (we know it didn’t, but in the moment I was fully bought in), and the Birds were the betting favorite to repeat as Super Bowl champions. So if AJ thought the team would listen to any sort of trade demands right then and there, he’d be out of his mind. It wasn’t going to happen. Full-stop.

Which brings me to the second question: does this report pass the smell test? For obvious reasons, no, it doesn’t. I don’t think AJ Brown is dumb. A big personality who can be hard to read at times, sure. But not an idiot. I understand the frustration he felt. We all felt it. We watched him get underutilized and misused all season, and we know what he’s capable of when the offense is actually built to get him the ball in meaningful spots. But Week 3? When everything still looked fine on paper? That part just doesn’t add up.

This AJ Brown saga is starting to feel like Carson Wentz all over again

Now, it’s also important to spotlight the guy who wrote this, Joseph Santoliquito. If you remember, he was one of the first people to break the “Carson Wentz is a locker room cancer” story back in 2019. And if you go back and read through all that now, a lot of it turned out to be true, or at the very least it became the accepted narrative about Wentz and his time in Philly.

Does that mean I’m going to believe everything he writes forever because he got one right? Not a chance. But it does give him a little credibility here, even if I’m reluctant to hand it out, because I truly believe in my heart of hearts that this AJ Brown thing is being blown way out of proportion.

The frustrating part is that this whole situation is starting to follow the exact same path as the Wentz saga. The stories keep piling up, they keep coming from unnamed people, and they all push the same message: AJ wants out. That’s exactly how Wentz got buried too. A steady drip of anonymous “insider” reporting until the fanbase is exhausted, the narrative is cemented, and eventually the team makes a move.

And just like back then, everyone is hiding behind the contract as the reason it won’t happen. That was the line with Wentz, and now it’s the line with AJ Brown. Except this time, it’s even uglier, because trading AJ would be one of the biggest dead cap hits this franchise has taken on since the Wentz trade. It’s the same cycle all over again: anonymous sources, media hearsay, contract math that makes you want to puke, and a player who goes from beloved to “problem” overnight.

I don’t know where this thing goes from here, but I do know this: if the Eagles want a real shot at getting back to where they belong, they can’t spend another season letting the offense rot from the inside out while everyone points fingers at the wrong guy. AJ Brown didn’t forget how to play football. Jalen Hurts didn’t suddenly become incapable of throwing a slant. The problem was the same problem we watched every Sunday — predictable, lifeless, prehistoric offense that made elite talent look ordinary.

So if this front office is serious about running it back, the answer isn’t trading away one of the best receivers in the league because anonymous sources are trying to stir up drama. The answer is fixing the offense, bringing in an actual adult to run it, and getting back to using AJ Brown like the weapon he is. Because if they trade him, you’re not “solving a problem,” you’re just creating a brand new one, and paying a disgusting amount of money to do it.