A.J. Brown has finally broken his silence.
Speaking for the first time publicly this offseason, Brown answered questions about his Eagles departure, his relationship with Jalen Hurts and his career move to New England in an interview with Maria Taylor on “7PM in Brooklyn.”
After months of speculation, the Eagles on Monday traded Brown to the Patriots for a 2028 first-round pick and a 2027 fifth-round pick. About a half hour after the trade went down, Eagles GM Howie Roseman finally acknowledged that Brown wanted a fresh start elsewhere.
When did Brown know that?
“It wasn’t a specific moment,” Brown said to Taylor. “I would say just I think at the end of the season, I just realized that I felt like my time was up.”
While Brown was a little short on details about why he wanted to move on, this is the first time he has admitted it publicly. Brown spent four seasons in Philadelphia, had over 5,000 receiving yards and won a Super Bowl. He’s one of the greatest receivers in franchise history.
Brown said he and his agent spoke about his future after the 2025 season but then he got out of the way and let his agent do his job. Eventually, that resulted in a trade to New England.
“Still processing it. Still processing it,” Brown said about his split from Philly. “I honestly took this time this week to really grieve and process my emotions around it. I’m going to miss this place. I’m going to miss teammates, miss the environment. That’s what I did. That’s what I’ve been focused on all week.”
Brown was asked about his arrival to Philadelphia in a 2022 trade and the excitement that surrounded it. Part of that excitement was the chance to play with Jalen Hurts, whom he considered a best friend back then.
Since then, the relationship dynamic between Hurts and Brown clearly changed.
“Not as close as we once were,” Brown said. “And I believe that’s fine. There’s no bad blood. There’s actually still a lot of love. I love him. I love him to death. I want him to succeed and accomplish all the things that he wants to accomplish. I didn’t truly understand why our friendship became center of everybody’s attention when it came to football because, looking back on it, we haven’t been as close as we were a couple years now. But that didn’t stop anything. We still competed, we still pushed each other, we still led the team.
“It (was) just kind of strange, people just got so fixated on the relationship and wanted to talk about — maybe from the history of this place. But that wasn’t what this was. I’m going to say it to you, I’m going to say it on camera: I got nothing but love for him. I want him to do well and accomplish everything that his heart desires.”
Last week at OTAs, Hurts was asked about Brown and said the two were “really good,” while also speaking about their accomplishments in the past tense.
“Nothing happened. Nothing happened,” Brown said. “People just grow apart. Nothing happened between me and him or our families or wives or anything. Nothing like that ever happened. But life happens. You just look up sometimes and you just find yourself drifting away. And that’s fine. I think both parties accepted that.”
Brown talked about the 2025 season and talked about the expectations on the team after winning Super Bowl LIX. He was asked how he handled those moments and admitted that it was “wrong” to publicly air his frustrations on social media.
But Brown also let it be known that his comments in the media were purposeful. It was a strategy.
“I knew if I say something in the media, I know it’s going to propel us to work on it because now everybody is talking about it,” Brown said. “It’s like, ‘Are we going to fix it or not?’ We can’t keep saying it. We can’t keep saying it’s a standard, it’s a standard and we’re not trying to truly get better. Not saying that we weren’t but I know if you say what you need to say in the media, which won’t do that anymore, but it gives everything legs and legs to push and to push everybody to better. Because pressure isn’t always a bad thing. It can also be a good thing too.”
As for his future, Brown seemed extremely happy to land with the Patriots. He grew up as a fan of the Pats. The interview with Taylor was even done in front of a giant Patriots rug that Brown has had in his house long before this trade was thought of.
