This offseason is just filled with things the Philadelphia Eagles need to accomplish on their checklist, but not executing them all could result in an ugly 2026 season.
Philly has some key free agents with Jaelan Phillips, Reed Blankenship, Nakobe Dean, and Dallas Goedert, but star wide receiver A.J. Brown's trade decision might be the biggest move the team makes in the offseason. Bleacher Report writer Kristopher Knox named the Eagles' worst-case scenario as them alienating Brown and not getting a trade done.
"A worst-case scenario, though, would see the Eagles trying and failing to move Brown, who remains unhappy with the state of the offense and his role. After last year's issues, Philly doesn't need a bigger offensive distraction, and having Brown on the roster and wanting to be elsewhere would be exactly that."
Eagles' worst-case scenario would be to not trade A.J. Brown
In all four seasons with the Eagles, Brown has caught at least 1,000 yards and seven touchdowns, but 2025 was a completely different year for him. Brown had only 1,003 yards and seven scores, the lowest of his four-year run with the team, but it was also the first where he wasn't an All-Pro or Pro Bowler.
From cryptic posts to stream comments, Brown was clearly unhappy and wanted out of Philly. At the end of the season, there were reports that he had asked to be traded multiple times throughout the year, starting after the Week 3 win over the Los Angeles Rams.
As mentioned in other articles on the site, Brown has a dead cap hit of over $70 million, and the Eagles would have to wait until after June 1 to add $7 million to their salary cap space. The financial aspect of Brown's contract is what would hold the team back from making a trade, so it isn't that simple.
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The Eagles are stuck between a rock and a hard place with Brown and probably would prefer to trade him, but working something out with him behind closed doors would help as well. A trade isn't the only option to solve the Eagles' problems with Brown.