What A.J. Brown adds to Patriots offense

The Patriots and Eagles completed one of the longest trade sagas in recent memory by agreeing to send wide receiver A.J. Brown to New England in exchange for a 2028 first-round pick and a 2027 fifth-round pick.

While the price was high, the Patriots are adding one of the premier receivers in the NFL who still has 2-3 prime years left. Brown is the most talented offensive skill player the Patriots have had since Rob Gronkowski retired after the 2018 season. The 6-foot-1, 226-pound Brown impacts all three levels of the passing game and is instantly the best contested catch player on the Patriots.

In seven NFL seasons, Brown has eclipsed 1,000 yards six times, including 1,003 yards in 15 games last season. That number would’ve ranked second on the Patriots in 2025, as would his seven receiving touchdowns, his 12.2 average depth of target and 47 first downs. His 17 contested catches would’ve been the most on the team.

Impact At All 3 Levels

Brown is a strong, reliable receiver who is physical with corners, but still has the quickness to separate from them. The most impressive part of Brown’s game is his impact at all three levels of the passing game: short, intermediate and deep.

Brown is known more as a deep ball receiver and he certainly is that. The Patriots will use him mostly at “X” receiver, which will allow him to get isolated on the backside of formations and hopefully have favorable matchups. His touchdown in the third quarter against the Bears is a good example of him creating separation, but then adjusting to a poorly thrown ball and taking it away from a defender for a deep touchdown. The Patriots don’t have anyone that can do this consistently like Brown.

In addition to his deep threat ability, Brown can dominate corners in the intermediate and short areas of the field. This play against the Rams is one of my favorites from 2025. It’s a bad throw on a curl route that with some other receivers would have been intercepted. Instead, Brown works back to the ball and uses his superior strength to wall a defender off and make the catch and subsequent run for 25 yards in a key situation late in the game.

The underneath area is not where fans typically think of Brown being used, but 52% of his targets last year were within 10 yards of the line of scrimmage. He can run slants and out-cuts for quick gains for first downs or take a short pass and outrun defenders for a long gain. This play vs. Washington stood out to me because it is a route that is used often in the Patriots playbook. This is another example of his strength coming into play; instead of a short gain he breaks a tackle and picks up additional yards.

In addition to these types of plays, Brown has played in two Super Bowls and won a championship. That experience is valuable for a Patriots team, and offense, which is still quite young despite a Super Bowl berth last season.

The Patriots had a chance to draft Brown in 2019 and missed out by taking N’Keal Harry instead. Brown is an elite talent and a player that opposing defenses will have to build game plans around. This will likely be a 2-3 year pairing due to Brown’s age and the Patriots’ money situation (extensions for Christian Gonzalez, Drake Maye and eventually Will Campbell will be expensive), but in that time Brown will give the offense a level of individual talent it has not had since 2018.