Philadelphia Eagles: Jalen Hurts’ lobbying for A.J. Brown worked

Folks, the Philadelphia Eagles now have not one but two elite outside wide receivers: Life is good!

That’s right, after watching four wide receivers go off the board between picks eight and 12, including noted franchise favorite Jameson Williams going one pick before the Birds ultimately selected Jordan Davis, Howie Roseman looked at his board, looked at the available options, and traded picks 18 and 101 to the Tennessee Titans for Pro Bowl wide receiver A.J. Brown.

And no one, nooo one is more excited about it than Jalen Hurts, who has been lobbying for his services all spring long.

Now granted, Brown didn’t come cheap – literally; he’s already agreed to a new four-year, $100 million deal with $53 million guaranteed, according to Ian Rapoport, but do you know what? With only Treylon Burks still on the board from the “top-6 wide receivers” – the player the Tennessee Titans ultimately selected at 18 – Howie Roseman chose to pay up for a proven Pro Bowl talent instead of hoping to select the next A.J. Brown with a mid-first round pick.

The Philadelphia Eagles now have a dynamic X wide receiver who can move.

A.J. Brown is the exact kind of player the Philadelphia Eagles’ offense needs. He’s bulky at 6-foot-1, 226 pounds, smart, and the sort of dynamic offensive weapon the likes of which Philly hasn’t had in quite some time.

Brown can do exactly what teams want to see from their X wide receiver; he can win versus press, catch 50-50 balls, and run a complete route tree. Place Brown on the line and watch him dominate in a way that the Eagles’ 2021 X wide receiver, Jalen Reagor, could have only dreamed of.

But wait, it gets better; not only can Brown play the X spot like a slightly shorter Alshon Jeffery, but he’s also a beast in the open field, as he averaged almost 40 percent of his yards after the catch over his first three seasons in Tennessee and could be a similarly effective space attacker in midnight green. Manufacture him a few easy touches, from jet sweeps to screen passes, and watch his go to work and cobble together a first down like one of the other players Philly was linked to this offseason, Deebo Samuel.

After trying to recruit Brown to Alabama when he was slinging passes for Nick Saban’s club, Jalen Hurts just secured one heck of an offensive upgrade; an upgrade he knows very well, considering the two long-time friends spent much of the offseason as workout buddies.

Is a first-round pick, a third-round pick, and $100 million a lot to pay for a wide receiver coming off of a (slightly) down year? Sure, but considering the Philadelphia Eagles’ concerted effort to either build around Jalen Hurts moving forward or secure a new quarterback like his fellow Crimson Tideman Bryce Young in 2023, the presence of A.J. Brown on the outside will make that evaluation period easy, and the offensive firepower of Nick Sirianni’s offense a whole lot more explosive than one day ago. All-in-all, A+ first day of the 2022 NFL Draft.