Philadelphia Eagles: Ranking the 2022 NFL Draft Class

A.J. Brown is the most NFL-ready player the Philadelphia Eagles landed on draft weekend because he is quite literally an NFL player.

There wasn’t a better player on the board at 18 than Brown, and even with an additional third round pick factored into the equation, the value is right on the money for a two-time 1,000-yard receiver who already has a Pro Bowl on his resume, and extensive experience catching passes from QB1, Jalen Hurts.

For $3.98 million in 2022, you won’t find a better value performer than Brown, but why, you may ask, is he third on this particular list? Well, because the Eagles also had to hand Brown a $100 million contract with $57 million guaranteed, which ranks third among wide receivers and 25th overall league-wide.

The Titans weren’t willing to pay Brown that much after three incredibly successful seasons in the Music City and opted to draft his replacement, Treylon Burks, with the first-round pick they acquired from Philadelphia.

Will Brown live up to that contract? Will he stick around for all four years of his deal and earn a new deal a few years down the line, or will we look back at this deal and wonder why Burks isn’t wearing midnight green instead of Titans blue? Only time will tell, but Brown’s floor is a WR1 in the NFL, and that wasn’t available to the Eagles otherwise.