Crossing Broad
The saying goes that the brighter the star, the faster it burns. But for A.J. Brown, it feels like his 2025 season has ended on more of a whimper.
There are plenty of problems to dive into for why the Philadelphia Eagles’ postseason run ended without a single victory. Brown has certainly earned a place in this conversation. The drop(s) heard round the world were the breaking point of frustration for plenty of Eagles’ fans in this lifeless playoff exit:
But this is just the straw that broke the camel’s back for what has been a season of issues for the three-time Pro Bowler. From posting cryptic tweets, to blowing off locker room scrums, to telling people to drop him off their fantasy teams on a Twitch stream, Brown has voluntarily put himself in headlines on quite a few occasions. None of the individual events are enough to be classified as a full-scale distraction, but each unnecessary nuisance wears on an organization and the fan base as they stack up.
Star wide receivers making headlines for having a strong personality is a tale as old as time. But when the juice isn’t worth the squeeze, and the headaches outweigh the production, the tune begins to change.
Even if Brown has worn out his welcome in the Eagles’ locker room and in the city of Philadelphia, the front office has zero choice in the situation. When opening day kicks off next year, expect number 11 to be lined up out wide and read to catch passes from Jalen Hurts for another season.
The conversation starts and ends when you take a look at the salary cap. Howie Roseman is as much of a wizard as you will find when it comes to moving money around to maximize team-building capabilities. But with these types of efforts also comes the potential to be stuck holding the bag, and this is the situation the Eagles find themselves in.
They handed Brown a three-year contract extension on April 24th, 2024, worth $96 million, including $84 million guaranteed. This, at the time, was the most guaranteed money ever handed to a wide receiver as well as the highest average annual value for the position at $32 million. But most concerning in this is a dead cap value of $72.5 million, laid out here by Spotrac:
Without speaking above my pay grade or diving too deep into the salary cap weeds, there is no clean out on this deal. If the Eagles were to cut Brown tomorrow, they would take on a dead cap hit of $72.5 million for the 2026 season. If they were to wait until after the new league year officially starts on June 1st, this number goes down to $45.4 million in dead cap for 2026 as well as a $27.2 million hit in 2027.
The obvious solution here is to seek out a trade, but this is not a clear financial break either....
