If the Los Angeles Rams traded for A.J. Brown, it would an even bigger story than acquiring Trent McDuffie and paying him $31 million per year. Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on your point of view, the rumors floating around on Friday that the Rams tried to trade for Brown once already and could still do it soon come from an unreliable narrator. The Athletic’s Dianni Russini:
“Last week, I was told the Rams discussed trading for Eagles WR A.J. Brown before dealing for CB Trent McDuffie. Dialogue slowed, but Los Angeles continues to monitor the status of the three-time Pro Bowler with interest. We’ll see where both parties go from here.”
Russini does not explain how the Eagles could have traded Brown last week with a dead cap charge of $43 million, per OvertheCap. Philadelphia only has $30 million in cap space as of Friday, so that means that the Eagles would have had to find $13 million more in cap space just to facilitate a trade before needing to be compliant with the league and then they’d need to find a lot more space in order to fill out the roster and pay their rookie draft class.
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This is not a fact that every reporter has overlooked.
Jason LaCanfora has reported that no trade could happen before the draft, like Russini says was close to happening last week:
“Getting anything done before the draft may be tricky; it would give the Eagles time to draft a potential replacement. Trading Brown before June 1 would cause the Eagles to incur a massive cap charge,” La Canfora wrote. “Brown is clearly unhappy with the situation and league sources maintain he would relish a change of scenery. It’s difficult to see that happening in the near future, however.”
So how could the Eagles have been close to trading Brown to the Rams last week even though crushed the cap for both teams? And why would L.A. choose a 29-year-old disgruntled receiver over a 25-year-old rising cornerback which also addressed the Rams’ greatest need? Making both moves is improbable given that everybody expects Philadelphia to hold out as long as possible for a first round pick?
Mike Garofolo, a believable NFL Insider who actually gets things right sometimes, reported that the Eagles are looking for a “Quinnen Williams-like” trade package.
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They will never get that (a first and a second round pick) for a receiver who is almost 30 and who at times has not seemed like a team player when he’s not getting the ball, but they’re not going to take on a $43 million cap charge for a second round pick either. The Eagles will have to wait until after the draft and hope that they get a first round pick in 2027, at which point they would also get cap savings instead of a cap charge.
So if you were the Eagles, would you have been close to trading Brown to the Rams, one of your biggest rivals, last week and taking on that $43 million cap charge for pick 29? If you were the Rams, were you close to trading a first round pick for a third starting wide receiver instead of getting a young All-Pro cornerback?
Or is it just another big piece of misinformation in a world where a rumor gets as much credit as an actual news story?
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