The moment that the breaking news ticker popped up on every Philadelphia Eagles' phone with the A.J. Brown trade being done, there was a sense of relief from the fan base.
Brown was sent to the New England Patriots as the Eagles got a 2027 fifth-round pick and a 2028 first-round pick. Eagles left tackle Jordan Mailata spoke out just one day after the trade happened, as there was a surprising sense of relief that it was done, despite the fact that he will miss Brown.
"Yes, we can move on now," Mailata said via The Athletic's Zach Berman. "I think most of us that have been here the last six weeks, we have moved on, just from, we have enough to worry about. Getting over last year, and then coming in here and learning a new scheme and new concepts, like we had to press on. So that's what we were doing. I think this is more of a — it sounds terrible — but like, thank God it's over. It was a slow pain of just, is he in, is he out? We didn't really know, and that really wasn't our focus as a team, our team, especially on offense. But we got to keep these wheels moving, we got new guys coming in, we got rookies coming in again, we got to build that culture every year."
Jordan Mailata is like the rest of the Eagles fans in his relief
There has been a weight on the Eagles players' shoulders for a long time, with the Brown drama happening in front of the cameras. It's been a storyline since 2024, but it really blew up last year with cryptic posts and public complaints on Brown's streams.
Even this offseason, it was a storyline that simply wouldn't die, as everyone tried to keep it alive by talking about it daily. By the end, though, it really didn't seem to matter once it happened, because it was talked about so much that everyone was over it.
Eagles players can now be in a state of euphoria that Brown is gone, and they can press forward as a team with what they have ahead of them. There's no more pressure to make Brown happy with targets and yards. It can just be about playing football.
Read more: Jordan Mailata dropped the Sean Mannion quote Eagles fans were ecstatic to hear
The 2026 season is going to be a heavy one for the Eagles, as a new kind of pressure will be on guys like Nick Sirianni and Jalen Hurts, whose jobs are on the line this year and in 2027. One thing about this Eagles team, as proven by the Brown trade saga over the last year, is that they are determined and can fight through any adversity to win games on the field, no matter what.
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