Where will A.J. Brown play in 2026?
When Philadelphia Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni and general manager Howie Roseman spoke to reporters at the NFL scouting combine on Feb. 24, they did not shut down trade speculation surrounding the Pro Bowl wide receiver. Neither of them expressed any certainty that Brown would be with Philadelphia by the start of the 2026 season.
‘Will A.J. be here next season?’ Sirianni said. ‘I think we’re still in a spot, like, I can’t guarantee how anything is going to play out into next season. I’m thinking I’m going to be the coach next season but you can’t guarantee anything past tomorrow.’
Several times throughout the 2025 season, Brown publicly expressed his frustrations with the Eagles and how they used him in their offense. During a video gaming livestream, Brown called his situation in Philadelphia a ‘(expletive)-show’, and during the Eagles’ wild-card game clash with the 49ers, cameras caught him jawing with Sirianni on the sideline.
‘I think you go into the league year listening to offers for everything and anything,’ Roseman said at the NFL combine. ”Without getting into specifics on any player, we’re always listening and we’re always kind of open.’
Brown has played in 62 games over four seasons with the Eagles, catching 339 passes for 5,034 yards and 32 touchdowns. He won a Super Bowl with Philadelphia last year, and his 5,034 receiving yards as an Eagle rank ninth all-time in franchise history.
In 2025, Brown caught 78 passes for 1,003 yards and seven touchdowns in 15 games.
If the Eagles do end up trading Brown, these four landing spots make a lot of sense:
AJ Brown landing spots
New England Patriots
Outside of the struggles the Patriots had with their offensive line to end their Super Bowl run, the wide receiver position appeared to be one of the weakest points on their roster. Veteran Stefon Diggs led New England with his 1,013 yards in 2025, but he was streaky – some weeks he’d cross over 100 yards in a game before multi-game stretches with fewer than 50 yards. Diggs also wasn’t a big red-zone target for the Patriots, catching just four touchdowns in his first year in New England.
Trading for Brown would give Patriots quarterback Drake Maye a younger, bona fide No. 1 receiver to throw to in 2026. Diggs, Kayshon Boutte, Mack Hollins and DeMario Douglas made up a solid receiving corps in 2025, but Brown would push that unit over the top as a true WR1.
A move like this would also reunite Brown with head coach Mike Vrabel, who was Brown’s first head coach in the NFL during both of their time with the Tennessee Titans. Brown said in a recent appearance on Rob Gronkowski and Julian Edelman’s podcast, ‘Dudes on Dudes,’ that he appreciated Vrabel for holding him accountable during his early years in the league.
‘When I say he holds every single player accountable from top to bottom, I don’t care who it is, like that’s who he is,’ Brown said. ‘And it makes the team come together because nobody is bigger than the team.’
Buffalo Bills
As with the Patriots, one of the Bills’ greatest roster weaknesses is at wide receiver. Since Diggs left Buffalo after the 2023 season, the Bills have not had a receiver cross the 1,000-yard mark. Khalil Shakir has led Bills receivers in both of the last two seasons, but he failed to crest 750 yards in 2025. And no Buffalo receiver had more than five touchdowns.
In 2025, the Bills started leaning especially heavily on running back James Cook, who finished the year with 309 rush attempts for 1,621 yards and 12 touchdowns. Even though former offensive coordinator Joe Brady took a promotion to become the team’s head coach, the Bills’ offense can’t rely on Cook having another season like that with the excessive taxation on his legs from 2025.
Enter Brown, the high-ceiling receiver that would give the Bills their first true WR1 since Diggs left Buffalo after 2023. Adding a receiver like that would help push Buffalo’s offense forward and allow them to deploy a similar strategy to the 2024 Super Bowl-champion Eagles: complement a strong run game with a dynamic passing game, all surrounding a talented, dual-threat quarterback.
Baltimore Ravens
The Ravens have taken swing after swing at drafting a lead receiver in the first round for the last two decades. Travis Taylor in 2000, Mark Clayton in 2005, Breshad Perriman in 2015, Hollywood Brown in 2019, Rashod Bateman in 2021 and Zay Flowers in 2023. Only Flowers, the Ravens’ most recent attempt, has made a Pro Bowl.
Flowers is coming off of the most productive season of his career so far with 86 catches for 1,211 yards, five touchdowns and a second straight Pro Bowl nod. The Boston College product is a dynamic player who excels at creating separation with his route-running and generating yards after the catch. However, Flowers’ 5-foot-9, 182-pound frame has limited his contested-catch ability, something that would give Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson another tool to work with.
If Baltimore traded for Brown, it would have one of the strongest 1-2 punches at wide receiver in the NFL. Brown would be the bigger-bodied, No. 1 wide receiver option who’s good for 100+ catches, 1,000+ yards and at least five touchdowns per season. Flowers would be the dynamic No. 2 receiver that can work all three levels of the field by streaking open downfield, creating easy separation over the middle or generating yards after the catch on short throws.
Los Angeles Chargers
The Chargers’ plan in the offseason should be building up their trenches in free agency and the draft. But Los Angeles, a team with $81.8 million in cap space, also has the room to take big swings on offensive playmakers like Brown.
None of the Chargers’ leading trio of receivers in 2025 – Keenan Allen, Quentin Johnston and Ladd McConkey – had more than 800 yards. None of them established themselves as the team’s true No. 1 option, either. McConkey led Los Angeles with 789 yards, Allen led with 122 targets and 81 catches, and Johnston led the Chargers with eight touchdown catches in a breakout season.
Now, Allen is hitting free agency ahead of his age-34 season, and the Chargers have brought in Mike McDaniel to be their new offensive coordinator. Adding a wide receiver like Brown to Los Angeles’ roster would give quarterback Justin Herbert a true No. 1 target, while McConkey and Johnston provide dynamic secondary and tertiary options. McDaniel’s offense was at its best in Miami when it had two outstanding wide receivers and a promising young running back to scheme around. With Brown, McConkey and Johnston catching passes and second-year back Omarion Hampton leading the run game, the Chargers’ offense could really break out with a more complex, multi-dimensional look in 2026.
