Finally, everybody can stop wondering when A.J. Brown would leave the NFC East. It happened, and now, the Washington Commanders won't have to see him twice a year.
The Philadelphia Eagles shipping Brown off to the New England Patriots signals a page being turned. Now, the Commanders will look to defend the Eagles' new duo in DeVonta Smith and rookie Makai Lemon.
One fun wrinkle in this trade that should have Commanders fans talking is the fact that these two rivals indeed square off in Week 1. The first time that Eagles offense takes the regular season field without Brown will be against Dan Quinn's Commanders defense, which is much-improved in some key areas.
The Commanders have a perfect opportunity to make the Eagles regret trading A.J. Brown
In that Week 1 matchup, what happens if the Eagles come out and look completely flat on offense? What happens if the Commanders defense gives Jalen Hurts all types of fits and he ends up playing poorly?
Everybody wants to talk about how good this is going to be for Hurts to not have the pressure of feeding Brown his targets on a weekly basis, but really, what's going to happen to the Eagles' offense now that they took away a top-10 talent at the wide receiver position?
The Eagles should be looking at this first regular season matchup as a golden opportunity. After all, the Commanders pass defense ranked almost dead last in 2025, finishing fifth-worst and giving up over 242 yards per game through the air.
Washington really revamped their defense, overall, though. Adding the likes of Odafe Oweh, Leo Chenal, Tim Settle, Sonny Styles, K'Lavon Chaisson, Nick Cross and Amik Robertson, just to name a few, the Commanders may be looking at a whopping seven-ish new starters on that side of the ball.
This is not going to be the same unit we saw take the field in 2025. In a perfect world, the Commanders' pass rush is a world better than it was last season. And, if that's the case, then we'll see just how cool Hurts is under pressure without a security blanket like Brown.
Should the Commanders come out and not only win, but make Philly's passing attack look hobbled, then we can allow our early takeaway to be that the Eagles made a grand mistake trading away their star wide receiver.
Then again, it was a lose-lose situation with the way that relationship had derailed.
In any event, this is a big win for Washington and it could lead to a real-life win come Week 1.
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