The Philadelphia Eagles enter the 2025 NFL season as the favorites to take home another championship after winning Super Bowl 59 in dominant fashion last season.
Philadelphia fielded one of the best offenses in the NFL last season thanks to stars like running back Saquon Barkley, offensive tackles Jordan Mailata and Lane Johnson, quarterback Jalen Hurts and wide receivers A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith.
Only two of those players were not drafted by the Eagles: Barkley, a free agent acquisition last offseason, and Brown, who Philadelphia acquired via trade during the 2022 NFL Draft.
Turns out, Philadelphia’s trade for Brown was minutes away from falling through on draft night.
Eagles general manager Howie Roseman revealed on an episode of the ‘Bussin’ With The Boys’ podcast that he was down to the wire on getting a deal done for the wide receiver during the draft.
Roseman and Jon Robinson, the Tennessee Titans’ general manager at the time, had a deal in place the morning of the draft for the Eagles to acquire Brown. The only issue was finalizing a new contract for the wide receiver.
‘We had to get a contract done with him,’ Roseman explained. ‘I said, ‘Jon, if we can’t get a contract done, we can’t do this trade. We can’t trade you a [first-round pick] and a [third-round pick] for one year of a player. We got to get a contract done first.”
Philadelphia held the No. 12 and No. 18 overall picks in the first round of that draft and were planning to send No. 18 to Tennessee for Brown. At No. 12, they picked Jordan Davis but still didn’t have a contract in place for the wide receiver, causing Robinson to pressure Roseman about what was happening.
‘Jon’s like, ‘what are we doing? What’s going on here?” Roseman said. ‘Between [picks] 12 and 18, I’m trying to finish the contract.’
This deal was kept secret from many Eagles’ front office members even as the first round of the draft went on.
‘Nobody knew except a couple of people that we were even doing it because I said, ‘imagine if this falls apart,” Roseman said. ‘Like, I’m going to be the GM who can’t get a deal done with AJ. … When we finished it, it was about pick 14.’
Roseman decided to break the news to the rest of the draft war room.
‘I’m just going to say, ‘hey guys, we’re picking AJ Brown,’ he said. ‘And they’re all going to look at me like, ‘what the (expletive) is going on?’ But they’re going to be excited as (expletive). And so it was really fun, it was really great energy.’
Brown was a second-team All-Pro in his first year with Philadelphia as the Eagles made a run to Super Bowl 57. He was a second-team All-Pro in 2023 and 2024 as well and had five catches for 43 yards and a touchdown in Super Bowl 59.
AJ Brown trade details
Philadelphia ended up trading the No. 18 and No. 101 overall picks to Tennessee for Brown. The Eagles immediately signed him to a four-year, $100 million contract.
Tennessee selected wide receiver Treylon Burks at No. 18 overall and packaged the No. 101 pick in a deal to send the New York Jets the No. 26 overall pick. Here’s who they selected with the picks they received from New York:
- Round 2, No. 35 overall: CB Roger McCreary
- Round 3, No. 69: OT Nicholas Petit-Frere
- Round 5, No. 163: WR Kyle Philips
McCreary and Burks are the only players still on the Titans’ roster ahead of the 2025 season.
Robinson was fired during the 2022 NFL season. Then-Titans coach Mike Vrabel disagreed on this trade as well as a later trade for wide receiver Julio Jones, leading to his firing.