One of the big storylines for the Philadelphia Eagles coming out of Sunday's win against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers was the lack of targets for number one wide receiver AJ Brown. As he's been known to do, Brown voiced his displeasure on social media after the game, further stirring the pot for a team that suddenly has a controversy on its hands despite its 4-0 record.
With Brown's clear discontent with Philadelphia, some are wondering whether the team may look to trade him to a squad that can get him more targets, but recently, NFL insider Jeremy Fowler of ESPN broke down why this isn't likely to happen.
“First, to get this out of the way: Brown's contract comes with a dead cap hit of nearly $90 million. That's tough to trade, even for an aggressive front office such as Philadelphia — though not impossible if designated as a post-June 1 trade,” noted Fowler on ESPN.com. “Some execs I spoke to this week don't expect Philadelphia to trade Brown in-season but said that it could be something to entertain in the offseason. It's sort of the worst-kept secret inside the league that Brown's love-hate relationship with Philly's passing game bubbles to the surface from time to time.”
Fowler also noted that Brown is “a true competitor and wants to be great. With that comes emotion and inevitable frustration.”
A strange situation for the Eagles
It's not often that a reigning Super Bowl champion who has started the ensuing season 4-0 has a controversy in its locker room, but that's the exact situation the Eagles find themselves in at the present moment.
The Eagles have been criticized more broadly for their vanilla offense, declining to have Jalen Hurts throw the ball more than absolutely necessary–in fact, Philadelphia didn't complete a single pass in the second half of Sunday's game in Tampa Bay.
Still, if it ain't broke, don't fix it, and for the time being, it seems that the Eagles are willing to stomach Brown's petulance as long as the wins keep stacking up.
