As recently as Wednesday, Philadelphia Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni insisted that he has “love” for mercurial wide receiver A.J. Brown. Sirianni also referred to Brown as a “great teammate” and a “great football player.”
That said, NFL insider Peter Schrager hinted during Thursday’s edition of the ESPN “Get Up” program that interested teams have made it known during this week’s scouting combine that they think Eagles general manager Howie Roseman could make Brown available before training-camp practices get underway later this summer.
Teams think Howie Roseman is “listening” for A.J. Brown trade offers?
“A lot of the conversations are had in hallways, in bars and in restaurants,” Schrager said about what goes on during the combine. “And a lot of the talk was about A.J. Brown [Wednesday]. And I’ll tell you this. There is a difference in tone from the trade deadline, when Howie Roseman said to everybody, absolutely, off the table, we’re not trading A.J. Brown, to here in Indy, where it seems like he’s almost saying, ‘Well, I’ll never just say no to listening to offers.’ …Roseman, this time of year, is always listening. That’s his mantra.”
Schrager was referencing how Roseman acknowledged this past Tuesday that “there’s very few things that I would shoot down without even hearing what that means” because it does not “hurt to listen.” Schrager seemed to imply that Roseman’s comments served as a “come get him” message from Roseman about Brown to other teams.
When could Eagles complete A.J. Brown trade?
“Truth of the matter is, it is cost-prohibitive for [the Eagles] to trade Brown before June 1,” Schrager continued. “That’s a $40M dead-cap hit. So, there are financial barriers here for the A.J. Brown trade. …[Roseman] also likes to add, not subtract. To trade A.J. Brown, they would need something back.”
Tim McManus of ESPN previously noted that the dead-cap hit related to a Brown trade would decrease to less than $20M if the deal were completed after June 1. McManus also noted that getting the offense “pointed in a better direction” is a key priority for the Eagles this offseason. One wonders if Schrager’s update shows that Roseman may want more than a second-day draft pick in return for Brown’s services.