The Eagles’ A.J. Brown Blockbuster Was Two Years in the Making

Howie Roseman has managed Philadelphia’s draft capital expertly, and the team always seems to have more.

When the Eagles began doggedly acquiring draft capital a year ago, many assumed it was for control of a future draft’s quarterback class. Little did we know, it was simply fuel for the team’s general manager to manipulate the board brilliantly and build around the young quarterback he already had.

Howie Roseman followed up a deft trade-up for star Georgia defensive tackle Jordan Davis—one pick ahead of the Ravens, a team tailor-made for Davis’s skill set—with the blockbuster of the night: a deal with the Titans for wide receiver A.J. Brown, which cost them their second first-round pick in 2022 and a third-round pick (and then they immediately handed him a lucrative extension). The Eagles still have a pair of first-round picks in next year’s draft.

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Amid a rapidly appreciating wide receiver market that saw both Tyreek Hill and Davante Adams get traded for massive packages (Hill was acquired for a first-round pick, a second-round pick, two fourth-round picks and a sixth-round pick; Adams was pried from the Packers for a first- and second-round pick), Brown was had for a relative bargain, especially considering the fact that, moments beforehand, the Cardinals traded their own first-round pick for Ravens wide receiver Marquise Brown.

General managers of wide-receiver-needy teams this offseason have been in a situation resembling the plight of aspiring American homeowners, scouring the market and forking over tens of thousands of dollars above asking price without blinking. Roseman simply bought an entire development with someone else’s money, cutting the line altogether.

Recently, the NFL landscape has shifted from teams simply acquiring draft assets in order to provide more chances at acquiring good players to teams utilizing that capital to nab proven players who have the ability to accelerate a rebuild. The Eagles snuck into the playoffs a year ago behind a reimagined offense designed by Nick Sirianni and Shane Steichen. They were thought to be in line to draft a first-round wide receiver for the third straight year but opted for a known commodity instead. Brown rose to prominence in Tennessee’s outside-zone system, logging nearly 3,000 yards and 24 touchdowns in his first three seasons. While the Eagles operate a slightly different offense, their schematic diversity and litany of talented wide receivers should put Brown in a position to remain one of the NFL’s most prominent wideouts. The Eagles utilized plenty of zone concepts last year to maximize Jalen Hurts’s mobility but maintain the flexibility to run a more standard zone offense.

At the combine back in March, one NFL executive wondered, wisely, why Roseman wasn’t getting more attention as a GM of the Year candidate. He has seemingly had his back against the wall at multiple junctures, navigated life with a rapidly depreciating asset in Carson Wentz and the mountain of dead-salary cap space his former QB left behind. His Super Bowl–winning head coach was fired. The roster that had earned the Eagles their only Lombardi Trophy a few years ago aged rapidly.

But Roseman got a first-round pick for Wentz, who barely lasted a season with the Colts before getting shipped off to his third team in as many years. Heading into last year’s draft eyeing one of the two star Alabama wide receivers (Jaylen Waddle or DeVonta Smith), the Eagles traded back from pick No. 6 to pick No. 12, netting an extra first-round pick in the 2022 draft, and still had enough capital to hop back up to pick Smith at No. 10.

With three first-round selections in 2022, the Eagles flipped one of those picks to the Saints, netting them more capital in the ’23 draft, still reserving enough ammunition to move up to pick Davis and trade for Brown.

As the Giants emerge from the rubble of the Dave Gettleman era, the Cowboys desperately try to save the remnants of their own rapidly aging championship-caliber roster and the Commanders sacrifice valuable draft equity for the quarterback Roseman expertly dumped two years ago, the Eagles are positioning themselves to lap the field should Hurts continue his ascent.

Some of what makes the Eagles’ situation appealing, of course, is good coaching. Some of it is having great players in the first place. But a great deal of it is thanks to what is happening in the Eagles’ front office right now. The chess-to-checkers analogy doesn’t quite suit Roseman’s gambit. It’s a bit more like he’s playing Risk and owns most of the board, while the rest of the NFC East is just barely hanging onto Irkutsk.