The Patriots called about A.J. Brown for 2 years and were 'laughed at.' Now, the ex-Eagles WR is practicing with them
FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — When there’s a chance a Pro Bowl-caliber player will become available, it’s Eliot Wolf’s job to call that player’s boss and ask.
“I call and I get laughed at,” the Patriots’ top personnel man reflected from his office Tuesday. “That’s just a normal part of a process.”
So Wolf began calling the Philadelphia Eagles about A.J. Brown in 2024 “just to see,” he told Yahoo Sports. For two years, the response was incredulous.
Around the NFL scouting combine this February, Eagles general manager Howie Roseman’s tone changed.
Three months later, timed not coincidentally with a league accounting deadline that aided the Eagles’ dead-cap allocation, on Monday the Patriots sent their 2028 first-round pick and a 2027 fifth to the Eagles in exchange for the three-time Pro Bowl receiver Mike Vrabel had helped draft and then coach in Tennessee. Now Vrabel is his head coach again in New England.
Brown’s exact fit into Josh McDaniels’ offensive scheme will be a work in progress. But Brown already said on his first day at Patriots HQ that his new coordinator had “given me a whole bunch of ideas,” while Brown’s new coaches in tandem touted their latest pupil’s quick learning and eagerness to understand principles.
On Tuesday, the marriage seemed off to a natural start. The same day that Brown completed and passed his physical, he joined the Patriots’ OTA practice. Running individual drills, participating in sprints and working into one first-team snap per 11-on-11 series, Brown quickly excited his new team.
So after a tumultuous final year in Philadelphia that involved disagreements with Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts, consider Brown ready to face forward. He addressed growing apart from Hurts, but feeling love toward him, in a Monday night interview with Maria Taylor. By Tuesday in Foxborough, he kept his focus on the Patriots: where his new runner-up MVP quarterback impressed.
Play 2026 Soccer Pick 'Em with FOX One and make your picks for the world's biggest soccer tournament
In a team meeting Tuesday morning, McDaniels was explaining a concept. Suddenly, QB Drake Maye piped in.
“He kind of cut Josh off, not in a rude way, but he just kind of took over,” Brown said. “It said so much from a young guy to know what he's talking about No. 1, and to lead and to be the voice of this team.
“So when I heard that, I was like, ‘Wow. That was impressive.’ Obviously I heard great things about him, but that part alone tells me a lot about him and how much he loves his job and he studies and everything.”
It could tell a lot, also, about Brown’s fit on and off the field in New England.
From knee to QB, Patriots believe Brown offers more answers than questions
Vrabel confirmed Tuesday that Brown told him upon the Titans’ 2019 drafting of the receiver that Brown was disappointed the Patriots did not select him.
Brown thought he’d go in the first round, and the receiver-needy Patriots held the final pick. But New England drafted N’Keal Harry, and not until pick 51 did Tennessee grab Brown.
Seven years later, Brown donned the literal No. 1 jersey for the team that as a child had been his emotional No. 1.
But why was he available? And why did the Patriots want him?
Brown’s production, while dipping last year, is undeniable in his seven pro years. Brown’s 8,029 yards and 56 touchdowns receiving each rank fourth in the league since he was drafted. The only players to surpass him in both metrics in that time: Davante Adams and Tyreek Hill.
Yes, Wolf acknowledged, Brown has a degenerative knee condition. But as the player said in his defense, he missed only one regular-season game (plus one playoff game) in three Philly seasons due to a knee injury designation. Brown also missed three games due to a hamstring injury in 2024, per Fox Sports’ record of injury designations. In all seven years of Brown’s career, he’s played at least 13 games.
“It’s a factor, but we examined him,” Wolf said. “He's got a knee that has some wear and tear that we were aware of. Our training staff and medical staff signed off on it.”
Noteworthy after the Baltimore Ravens backed out of the infrastructure of a trade deal for Maxx Crosby: Brown underwent and passed his physical Tuesday morning.
And off the field, yes, Brown was highly vocal in Philadelphia about the standards he expected of teammates and how he thought the pursuit of them should look. But that doesn’t rock Vrabel.
“This is a competitive game, highly competitive,” Vrabel, who played 14 years in the NFL, said. “What's most important is that those things don't carry into the locker room, that they get handled, and you see that all the time on the sidelines. We want to have conversations in the meeting room. We want to have conversations at practice. And sometimes those conversations are animated.
“But it's all in the sake of trying to get on the same page and get right.”
Brown’s work to get on the same page as teammates began Tuesday.
Brown joined his new team for early warmups and stretching, though he declined an offer to lead the team in a stretch as he insisted instead he should earn their respect.
Vrabel and receivers coach Todd Downing, who was Brown’s offensive coordinator for a season in Tennessee, showed their new receiver the ropes. Veteran receiver Mack Hollins also helped Brown acclimate.
The Patriots positioned Brown to catch some of Maye’s deeper passes in individual periods without running the full 30 to 40 yards of the route. And while Brown worked sparingly into team drills for a system he’s yet to learn, Maye did target Brown during an 11-on-11 period featuring third-down calls.
Brown lined up outside to Maye’s left, running out then thoroughly losing fifth-round rookie cornerback Karon Prunty on his comeback.
“He’s incredibly powerful, that's the first thing that stands out,” Wolf said. “He can get open one-on-one. He can get open versus zone. He's got a great feel. He's got great hands. He's able to adjust to the football. He's super strong.
“He's probably not quite as fast as he once was, but he can still run. There were even a couple times today where, and it was just kind of routes on air, where it was kind of cool to see.
“Like, ‘All right, he’s still got some juice.’”
Adding Brown shows Patriots intend to maximize potential during Maye’s rookie deal
Patriots players looked at their leadership’s acquisition of Brown and thought: Our coaches and executives aren’t resting on the laurels of an AFC championship title and Super Bowl berth.
“Considering we went to the Super Bowl last year, I think that’s the same expectation this year,” nose tackle Cory Durden said.
Another year of Maye’s rookie deal before his extension eligibility opens allows the Patriots to chase aggressively in free agency and the trade market.
“That's our No. 1 priority,” Wolf said of Maye’s eventual extension. “Obviously we have other priorities, but that's our No. 1 priority and I think it just gives you some advantages, especially as we were kind of restocking in free agency last year, we spent the most money in the league, and then again this year when we kind of went heavy again. That's not necessarily sustainable, especially when we have guys like [Christian] Gonzalez and Drake coming down the pipe here.
“But having that now gives us the flexibility in these, call it the next two years, to be able to do something like this.”
The Patriots believe the culture of accountability Vrabel has established in New England increases their chances of maximizing potential. That high standard is something Brown craves — even if Vrabel rubbed Brown the wrong way during his rookie year.
“My first impression? Oh, I did not like him,” Brown laughed as he remembered. “I can say that. But what I [grew] into, man, he's a great guy. He's a great guy and he coaches hard, he holds guys accountable. And I'm not saying that lightly. He really does.
“Honestly, I believe that he's daring somebody to challenge him.”
That accountability was evident already on Tuesday when Vrabel told Brown not to walk away as he was getting on 2025 first-round left tackle Will Campbell (Brown told his coach he’d “been around you a million times” and knew a lesson was imminent.). It was evident in team drills when Vrabel broke up a period at one point when it didn’t reach the standards he expected.
Call it a “win now” mindset if you want. Vrabel calls it the job, which is to win it all rather than revert to the Patriots’ 2023 and 2024 records of 4-13.
Adding a big-bodied, physical receiver in Brown supports that goal, the Patriots believe. While the 6-foot-1, 226-pound Brown is not the same size as the 6-6, 265-pound tight end that once delighted Patriots fans, McDaniels does see some similarities in the usage between Brown and Rob Gronkowski.
“This is a big man,” McDaniels said. “I’m not sure I’ve been around one just like him. Maybe the closest one I’ve seen is Gronk.”
The Patriots will largely look to Brown as an outside wide receiver role but plan to test additional positions in training camp once he has a stronger grasp of McDaniels’ system. Brown plans to chase some of Maye’s deep balls — but also work short and intermediate routes, knowing both that they can convert important first downs and can sometimes become big gains with yards after the catch.
That’s a Brown phenomenon that Wolf first learned about in 2018, when as assistant general manager of the Cleveland Browns, he attended one of Brown’s final college games: Ole Miss vs. Vanderbilt.
Brown caught a pass in the flat then maneuvered the left boundary to leave three defenders in his wake. Before long, he was crossing the field to complete an 84-yard touchdown.
Wolf called a Browns colleague to ask: “Are you sure that A.J. Brown can't run?" And while Cleveland had spent their first-round pick that year to pair Odell Beckham Jr. with Jarvis Landry, the now-Patriots executive appreciated his impact ever since.
“We had traded our 1 for Odell and if we had just sat there and picked A.J. Brown, the what-ifs are crazy,” Wolf said. “Having the opportunity to kind of right that wrong and get a player that we still think has difference-making capabilities at a position of need for our team…
“We have a deep group, but to add a player of his caliber on the front end of that group is something that we obviously put a lot of stock into.”
Brown puts stock into his remaining juice, too. But he’ll let his work do the talking.
Brown was asked Tuesday how much he has left in the tank entering Year 8.
He smiled and walked off the podium: “You’ll see.”
