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The Philadelphia Eagles began the first week of June with a blockbuster trade that the whole world saw coming.
The Eagles sent Brown to the New England Patriots for a 2028 first-round pick and a 2027 fifth-round pick. Now that the second week of Philadelphia’s OTAs has commenced, the primary question surrounding the two-time Super Bowl champions is simple: Have players been able to put the move behind them and focus on the upcoming campaign? The answer to that question is a comforting yes.
“Yes, we can move on now,” left tackle Jordan Malita said Tuesday, according to ESPN’s Tim McManus. "I think this is more of a -- it sounds terrible -- but like, thank God it's over.”
McManus noted that cornerback Cooper DeJean echoed the same sentiment.
"Anytime you lose a great player like him, it hurts," the 23-year-old Super Bowl champion said. "And he's a great friend of mine; he was a great teammate in our locker room. But there's a business side to this thing, so everybody did what was best for them."
While it’s clear that Malita, DeJean, and likely several other Eagles contributors aren’t rejoicing Brown’s departure from the organization, they also aren’t prepared to lose sleep over a business move that was relatively easy to predict months in advance. Philadelphia must move forward with the assets currently on its roster, and it sounds well-equipped to do so.
Even more encouragingly, Malita believes that the Eagles' offense in 2026-27 under Sean Mannion will be a force to be reckoned with, unlike this past season when the organization struggled to run the ball and had one of the most predictable passing attacks in the league.
“I think we have answers to a lot of things in the run game now,” Malika noted while speaking to NBC Sports Philadelphia’s John Clark. “We’ve cleared up the confusion on who’s blocking who. In the pass game, just from an offensive line standpoint, it’s a lot more simple, and I think the simplification of things has helped a lot, but also adding in deception, adding in motions.”
“The responsibilities for receivers in the run game and the pass game, marrying them two together, that’s a very harmonious marriage going on right now, and it’s bloody beautiful.”
Adding more creativity to an offense that was stale for much of the 2025-26 campaign should do wonders for the Eagles this year (they finished 23rd in passing offense and 18th in rushing offense).
In concerning news, though, Eagles cornerback Quinyon Mitchell informed the Inquirer’s Jeff McLane that rookie WR Makai Lemon is dealing with a hamstring injury and could be sidelined for next week’s mini-camp.
While McLane hinted that the former USC star could be available for training camp in July, it isn’t great that Brown’s new replacement in Philadelphia isn’t 100% healthy at the moment.
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