Offseason review, grades, commentary. Or, what to think about that AJ Brown trade.

Usually I come out with this article sometime shortly after the draft but one of the reasons I waited was to see how the AJ Brown situation got resolved. Well, that's been done for some time now, so let's get to it. With camp about three weeks away, let's jump right in with some grades and commentary for the offseason's biggest storylines (starting with the bad news):

Lost Jeff Stoutland due to philosophical differences over offensive system: F - - -. It's really difficult to overstate how big of a loss this is, and not just because Stout was a Philly legend and arguably the premier position coach at any level of the sport. I'd argue that he's more responsible for this recent era of Eagle prosperity than anyone not named Lurie or Roseman. Here's a listing of the Eagles' final OL ranks leaguewide according to PFF, and their W/L % including playoffs in those years:

SEASON	RANK	WIN/LOSS %
2025	7	61.11%
2024	1	85.00%
2023	1	61.11%
2022	1	80.00%
2021	4	50.00%
2020	19	28.13%
2019	1	52.94%
2018	5	55.56%
2017	1	84.21%
2016	8	43.75%
2015	12	43.75%
2014	2	62.50%
2013	1	58.82%
AVERAGE	4.85	58.99%
2012	19	25.00%
2011	2	50.00%
2010	17	58.82%
2009	9	64.71%
AVERAGE	11.75	49.63%

I included the four years pre-Stoutland for comparison; Philly was modestly above average in those years in the OL department (mostly due to the presence of Jason Peters and the organization's longtime emphasis on the unit), and was decidedly average in terms of team success. In the Stoutland U Era, Philly had more top overall finishes (six) than finishes outside the top five (four). Some of those years the OL was the only real positive for the entire team; 2021 in particular stands out as the unit dragged the Birds to the playoffs almost singlehandedly. It's no coincidence that the team has, over that stretch, been solidly in contention far more often than not.

Losing a coach of this importance for something like retirement is bad enough, but losing him over a desired switch to a Shanahan offensive system is just stupid. I'm hoping there's more to it than what's been reported so far, but as of now this stands as a painful self inflicted defeat.

Chose Jonathan Greenard and about $22 million in cumulative cash savings over Jaelen Phillips and a third round pick (98th overall in the '26 draft): B +. The Birds effectively took a healthier, cheaper and more productive player and traded for him using (in effect) the third round comp pick that they will get for losing Phillips to Carolina. Greenard is a solid all around edge who's also a great locker room presence. Throw in the cap savings and Phillips' injury history and this was a solid swap. The only thing keeping this from a straight A is the fact that Greenard is a few years older.

Plugged open outside CB spot with former Pro Bowler Riq Woolen: A. I'm a long time Woolen fan who hoped the Eagles would take advantage of his slide during the '22 draft. He had a special rookie season in which he made the Pro Bowl but has seen his performance decline as the years went on. He's still young enough (just turned 27) with an elite athletic profile and the early returns in spring camp have been promising. Mitchell's emergence as an All-Pro means Woolen won't need to be the top gun. Plugging in a guy like this as CB3 will likely give the Birds the top CB trio in the NFL this year (more on this in the preseason).

Said goodbye to a few longtime starters (Reed Blankenship, Nakobe Dean, Jahan Dotson, Brett Toth): B -. I include Toth in this group for old time's sake (how long has he hung around?), but the truth is that Philly didn't need or won't miss most of these guys. The one exception is Blankenship, who signed a reasonable deal with Houston ($8 million AAV) that Philly probably should have just matched, considering the weak situation of their safety depth chart.

Retained a few longtime starters/role players (Dallas Goedert, Grant Calcaterra, Fred Johnson, Marcus Epps, Braden Mann): B. The Birds had not (as of free agency) addressed the TE position in a meaningful way since drafting Goedert in 2018. This made the re-signing of their top two tight ends a near necessity. Johnson is a solid swing tackle, Epps is a decent depth option at safety and Mann has been a good punter for the Birds. Solid work here.

Classic annual roster churn: A.

Excluding the guys listed above, here are the role players lost:

Sydney Brown

AJ Dillon

Brandon Graham (so far)

Adoree Jackson

Kylen Granson

Sam Howell

Azeez Ojulari

Ogbo Okoronkwo

Matt Pryor

Josh Uche

Ben Vansumeren

Role players gained:

Johnny Mundt

Arnold Ebiketie

Jonathan Jones

Marquise Brown

Dameon Pierce

Stone Smartt

JT Gray

Elijah Moore

AJ Epenesa

Michael Jordan

Andy Dalton

Dontavyion Wicks

Unlike last year, I'm inclined to think that the players gained this year will give us more meaningful snaps than those lost. There are a good half dozen players or so that I think will have meaningful roles for the Eagles in 2026 (Wicks, Epenesa, Gray, Ebiketie, Mundt would be my guesses). I feel a lot better overall about the second rung of the depth chart this year than I did last year.

Reshuffled offensive coaching staff (non-Stoutland edition), and retained defensive staff: A-. Removing the aforementioned loss of Stoutland, the Birds largely got the coaching staff stuff right (sort of like the old "Other than that, how was the play, Mrs. Lincoln?" joke, but still). The Patullo offense was one of the worst in recent Eagles memory, so nearly anything would represent progress. The defense has arguably been the NFL's best since Fangio came aboard and with the exception of Christian Parker, that staff largely returns intact.

Traded AJ Brown for a 2028 first round pick and a 5th in 2027: B. This story naturally dominated the offseason, has been brewing since at least 2024 and deserves some nuanced comment. First things first, losing AJ certainly makes the 2026 offense weaker on paper. Brown was a natural force multiplier who helped the Eagles offense rise from mediocre to championship level. Brown's presence during probably the best ever four year run of Eagles football is not a coincidence and it's a shame this could not be worked out.

However...

When you take into account the off-field and locker room stuff, and the fact that the Eagles are naturally more concerned with what AJ will do over the next four years than what he did over the last four, there's a strong case to be made that they come out of this as the big winners. In the first place, it was pretty clear that Brown was hampered physically throughout all of last season. It's unclear if this was a one time thing or a sign of things to come, but for a player who's been bothered by knee issues since college, I wouldn't bet the farm on Brown's health prospects going forward. As far as the off field stuff goes, having a player be treated as well as Brown was and still have him be so dissatisfied makes a trade a borderline necessity. Consider:

• Since coming to Philly, Brown is 7th in total targets leaguewide and 10th in targets per game (min 20 starts). So much for any narratives that portray Brown as being underused in this offense.

• Since coming to Philly, Brown has made more money than all but two WRs in the entire league (Tyreek Hill and Davante Adams, per Spotrac). So much for any narratives that Brown wasn't appreciated by the franchise.

• Since coming to Philly, Brown's jersey is 8th overall in NFL WR jersey sales, per NFLPA estimates. If there were any questions about fan support, let those be put to rest.

• Brown was one of just three WRs to be a team captain every year from 2022-2025 (Mike Evans, Terry McLaurin). If there are any narratives out there that portray Brown as being unliked by teammates, they are false.

• No WR in the NFL has been part of more team wins over these last four seasons, other than teammate Devonta Smith.

Factual summary: Brown had targets, money, fan support, teammate support and team success and had these in great supply. Seriously, what else might a player ask for? What do you do with a highly paid, physically declining player that you apparently can't make happy under any circumstances? What else could Philly do other than what they did? It's entirely possible that this was addition by subtraction but we won't know that for sure for another year or two.

As far as the return goes, if we know everything that I talked about above, then the rest of the league did as well. As talented as AJ is, how many teams were looking to move top level assets for an aging, (possibly) declining, expensive and temperamental asset? There was a period of time when I was concerned that a day two pick would be the return but thankfully that proved false. In short, while this will hurt the offense in the short term I think getting rid of the distraction and bad locker room vibes may be a positive for this coming year. The offense was so weak in 2025 that it can't be much worse with or without AJ Brown. The trade assets coming back give the team plenty of options going forward.

Rapid fire draft commentary.

Round 1, pick 20 overall: WR Makai Lemon. A really tough, high floor player who projects highly as a slot. Considered a consensus top 15 prospect. Howie likely overpaid a little on the trade up to steal him from the Steelers, but considering that his track record on these day one trades is pretty good (the last four Round 1 trade up targets were Devonta Smith, Jordan Davis, Jalen Carter and Jihaad Campbell), we'll take it.

2, 54: TE Eli Stowers. A highly athletic project who's rookie season will just be his fourth at the position, Stowers will offer immediate upside in certain passing situations but will need to add strength and blocking experience. This description mirrors that of Dallas Goedert coming into Goedert's rookie season, by the way.

3, 68: OT Markel Bell. A mammoth OT in the mold of previous Eagles OL experiments (Bell is somewhere on the Mailata-Becton spectrum in sheer size, measuring an absurd 6-9, 345). There's upside here as well but Bell is likely a year or two away from being trustworthy. Here's where the team will really miss Stoutland's developmental program.

5, 178: QB Cole Payton. How many 6-2, 235 QBs that can run a sub-4.6 40 can you think of? It's probably not many. Payton has the raw talent but like some of the guys listed above, is likely a couple years away from actual QB snaps. If the Taysom Hill comps that came out in April hold up, there will be gadget packages available sooner than that.

7, 244: S Cole Wisniewski. The Eagles have tried a few players making the safety --> LB switch but this is the rare case where it goes in the other direction. Wisniewski was a LB at the FCS level but a solid safety on Texas Tech's excellent defense in 2025. He offers plus size but not much else. More of a special teams project than anything else at this point.

7, 251: DT Uar Bernard. The answer to the question, "What would it look like if Myles Garrett added 30 pounds of pure muscle?", but with the caveat that Garrett forgot literally everything he ever knew about football. The Eagles had lightening strike once with Jordan Mailata eight years ago and are aiming for that to happen again. This pick speaks as much to the long-term intentions of DL coach Clint Hurtt to stick around as anything else. A lottery ticket worth buying.

7, 252: EDGE Keyshawn James-Newby. An undersized, athletic, one dimensional pass rusher with almost no shot whatsoever to make the 53? Sounds familiar.

Overall, I'm going to grade the draft a C +. No obvious bad picks but no slam dunks either. With the exception of Lemon, no one drafted this year will be starting for the team anytime soon barring catastrophic injuries somewhere; this particular draft is about 2027 and beyond. That speaks to Roseman's desire to future proof the roster as well as the solid state of the current starters.

FINAL ANALYSIS: I think I'd give this offseason a solid B +. The loss of Stoutland is a clear negative and prevents a solid A, but other than that you'd struggle to convince me that any of these moves really missed the mark. This coming season should see Philly back into Super Bowl contention and as discussed in the draft and AJ Brown sections, the team also gave itself some options and security for the future. Good work as usual, Howie!