Report: AJ Brown June 1 trade may not be a foregone conclusion after all

After months of being told AJ Brown would be traded to the New England Patriots the second June 1 hit, with the date now just days away, reports indicate it may not actually happen.

What a fucking shock.

Per Ian Rapoport, neither side seems willing to compromise. The Eagles want a first-round pick in 2027, and the Patriots are not budging on their refusal to give one up.

So now this whole thing could drag into the summer, because the guaranteed trade everyone swore was happening is suddenly a little more complicated than that.

AJ Brown trade on June 1 isn’t the foregone conclusion we were told it was

From The Insiders on @NFLNetwork: #Eagles QB Jalen Hurts knows he's probably worked with AJ Brown for the last time. But when it'll happen is a different story. pic.twitter.com/qQWhPZkp8G

— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) May 27, 2026

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We’ve said it from day one. The Eagles do not need to trade AJ Brown.

Trading him after June 1 would free up cap space in future years, sure. But from the Birds’ standpoint, this was never a move they had to make. It always felt like the Patriots were the team more interested in making it happen.

And now that they’re on the doorstep, they’re sandbagging.

I’m not sure what New England’s strategy is here. If they think they’re going to wait out Howie Roseman, they obviously haven’t played this game before. Howie knows the value he has in AJ Brown. Trading him for anything less than a first-round pick does not help the Eagles.

Keeping him, because again, they are not required to trade him, makes more sense than taking some discount package just because New England wants to get cute.

After hearing Jalen Hurts, Saquon Barkley, and others talk about the AJ situation this week, it doesn’t even feel like there’s real bad blood inside the building. This still feels like a one-sided issue on AJ’s part. If he doesn’t get the Eagles what they want in a trade, he may just have to suck it up and play ball.

As they say, the NFL is a business.

If he wants out as badly as some people make it seem, he should publicly demand a trade. That would be the worst-case scenario for the Eagles. It would take away a good chunk of their leverage, and they’d probably be forced to move him before training camp.

Heading into a year with a new offensive coordinator, pressure on Nick Sirianni, and plenty of key people in the building needing this season to go right, any distraction could derail things fast.

At this point, I have no idea what will happen. The Eagles have clearly prepared for life without AJ Brown. But maybe they just keep him for shits and gigs and let the Patriots figure it out on their own.