Philadelphia Eagles: A.J. Brown’s contract looks destined to be restructured

After making the trade almost a week ago, A.J. Brown finally put pen to paper and officially became the newest member of the Philadelphia Eagles.

The Pro Shop can finally repurpose all of those 11 jerseys from years passed to good use, folks can evaluate Brown’s potential fit in Nick Sirianni’s offense, and Zach Pascal, unfortunately, can start thinking about a new number, as his previously disclosed digits are now officially taken. In a few short weeks, we’ll see Brown on the field for mini-camp, then training camp, and before we collectively know it, the preseason will be in full swing with the ex-Tennessee Titan catching passes from his good pal Jalen Hurts for the next five years.

… or will he?

Now that A.J. Brown has officially signed his four-year, $100 million contract, which doesn’t technically take effect until 2023, the fine folks over at Spotrac have the details of his deal, and needless to say, Howie Roseman crafted a contract that will almost certainly need to be reworked at some point down the line.

The Philadelphia Eagles got creative with A.J. Brown’s new contract.

Alright, so from a super basic, macro view, A.J. Brown’s new contract looks like a four-year, $100 million contract. That’s the deal that was announced during the first round of the 2022 NFL Draft, and if Brown plays out the entire deal to a T, that is roughly how much money he will earn.

In actuality, however, Brown signed a three-year deal worth $57.22 million, and the Eagles could move off of the contract before its final year, which has a staggering cap hit of $37.68 million.

To my knowledge, that would be the fourth-most expensive cap hit for a wide receiver in NFL history, trailing only Tyreek Hill’s projected cap hit in 2026 and Davante Adams’ projected cap hits in 2025 and 2026.

Now granted, does that mean the Eagles are going to release Brown to almost completely remove that massive number off of their books? No, if Brown is still producing like a 1,000-yard receiver, I would assume the Eagles would love to keep him around; it’ll just have to come on a new deal, with more guaranteed money and a longer run time.

Fortunately, Howie Roseman has never seen a contract he wouldn’t like to rework, so as long as Brown’s happy, that shouldn’t be a problem.

So why you may ask, did Roseman structure Brown’s deal this way? Well, because he could. Unlike in other sports, where it’s very unusual to see contracts with wildly dissimilar cap numbers from season to season, there’s no rule preventing Roseman from paying Brown $8.5 million in 2023, $27.68 million in 2024, and $22.68 million in 2025, let alone giving the former Pro Bowler $2.034 million in 2027 once his deal has already come to an end. Roseman chose to structure Brown’s deal this way to better fit it alongside the team’s other expensive contracts, and the ones they expect to eventually payout in the not too distant future and, assuming he keeps his ducks in a row, that shouldn’t be too big of a problem.

Confusing? You bet; general managers put a ton of effort into crafting contracts, and laymen like you and me need to put almost as much into just understanding them. All that really matters is that A.J. Brown is going to be a member of the Philadelphia Eagles until at least the end of the 2025 NFL season, and that is pretty darn cool indeed.