The multiyear saga between the Philadelphia Eagles and wide receiver A.J. Brown finally reached its inevitable conclusion with Monday’s trade to the New England Patriots. A partnership that began with a draft-day trade in 2022 produced two Super Bowl appearances, one championship and multiple chapters of turmoil and drama.As Brown begins a new chapter as a member of the Patriots — with him set to be introduced Tuesday afternoon — and the Eagles prepare for their first season without Brown since 2021, here’s a timeline of how we arrived at this point.April 26, 2019: Tennessee Titans draft Brown in second roundConsidering how the end of Brown’s tenure with the Eagles played out and where he’s headed, it’s fascinating to watch a video from the day Brown was drafted.Brown was tossing around a football with friends and family when then-Titans general manager Jon Robinson called to say Tennessee was going to select him. Jalen Hurts, who was already two years into his NFL career with the Eagles and shared a longstanding friendship with Brown, was the first person to congratulate the wide receiver.The next person to welcome Brown to the NFL was Mike Vrabel, who was in his second season as the Titans’ head coach and is now the Patriots’ head coach.April 2022: Week before the NFL DraftDespite 105 targets in 2021 — only one fewer than 2020 and 21 more than in his rookie year in 2019 — Brown had career lows in yards and touchdowns. Brown was eligible for an extension with one year remaining on his rookie deal. However, the Titans and Brown’s camp were unable to agree on a value for the wide receiver’s second contract.Brown had a birthday party for his 2-year-old daughter the week before the 2022 draft. Hurts, the girl’s godfather, was in attendance. There were conversations about Brown’s future in the NFL as the two players worked out together on the field. Hurts, who once tried to recruit Brown out of high school to join him at Alabama, “put a bug” in the ears of the Eagles’ brass.April 28, 2022: Trade to the EaglesThe Titans traded Brown on Day 1 of the 2022 draft to the Eagles in exchange for first- and third-round picks (Nos. 18 and 101). Brown then agreed to a four-year extension worth $100 million. The $25 million per year average was the fourth-highest among NFL wide receivers at the time.The Eagles posted a video on the night of the trade of Hurts and Brown on a FaceTime call with each other, laughing uncontrollably.“Boy, boy, boy,” Hurts said.“Man, let’s do it,” Brown said.“Say no more,” Hurts responded.“We always joked about” playing together, Brown said in his opening news conference with the Eagles. “But we never thought that it would be reality.”Longtime friends Jalen Hurts and A.J. Brown were united after Brown was traded to the Eagles in 2022. (Eric Hartline / Imagn Images)2023 regular season: Best stretch, followed by silenceThe Eagles went from being ranked 25th in passing yards per game in 2021 to No. 9 in 2022, as Brown set career highs in yards and touchdowns.As great as the 2022 season was for Brown and the Eagles, the receiver’s most dominant stretch came in his second season in Philly. Brown had receiving totals of 131, 175, 127, 131, 137 and 130, respectively, and caught five touchdown passes from Week 3 through Week 8. The Eagles went 5-1 in those games.Philadelphia faltered down the stretch, going 1-5 in its final six games. Brown didn’t top 100 yards in any of the final five games. Body language aside, Brown also didn’t share his frustrations publicly, declining to speak with reporters.Brown broke that silence before the team’s regular-season finale.“All you see is, ‘A.J. Brown is frustrated. A.J. this. A.J. that,'” Brown said. “Everybody in this locker room is frustrated. So why are you singling me out because I’m frustrated? Just because I’m shaking my head, I’m showing emotion? You can look at everybody in the stadium has bad body language. They’re frustrated.”April 25, 2024: A second contract extensionThe Eagles signed Brown to a three-year extension worth $96 million almost two years after they traded for him, and with three years remaining on the extension he initially signed in Philadelphia. That locked Brown in through the 2029 season.2024 regular season: Eagles’ offense undergoes identity shiftThe Eagles made a major splash in free agency by signing running back Saquon Barkley a little over a month before Brown’s extension.Barkley’s arrival changed the dynamics of their offensive philosophy. They had a top-10 rushing attack in 2022 and 2023, but Barkley spearheaded a ground game in 2024 that ranked second in the NFL at nearly 180 yards rushing per game. Barkley led the NFL in rushing, earned first-team All-Pro honors and was named the league’s Offensive Player of the Year.The Eagles ranked No. 12 in the NFL in passing yards per game across the 2022 and 2023 seasons. Philadelphia tumbled to the bottom five in 2024, ranking No. 29 in the league.Brown finished the season with 67 catches for 1,079 yards in 13 games, all figures that were the lowest since he arrived in Philadelphia.Dec. 9, 2024: Brandon Graham comments on Brown’s relationship with HurtsOne day after Brown had four catches for 43 yards in an Eagles win over the Carolina Panthers, Philadelphia defensive end Brandon Graham spoke about the relationship between Hurts and Brown during his weekly radio appearance on SportsRadio WIP.“I don’t know the whole story, but I know that 1 (Hurts) is trying,” Graham said. “Eleven (Brown) could be a little better with how he responds to things. They were friends before this, but things have changed.”Graham was on injured reserve when he made the comments after playing in 11 games that season.Jan. 12, 2025: Cameras catch Brown reading a book during a gameBrown was seen on the sideline of the team’s wild-card playoff win over the Green Bay Packers reading a book. Brown, who caught one pass for 10 yards in the game, later said he was reading “Inner Excellence,” and that he read it often during games. Brown was targeted seven times the next week but only caught two passes for 14 yards in a divisional round win over the Los Angeles Rams.Feb. 11, 2025: Post-Super Bowl social media postBrown shared some thoughts in a caption on Instagram two days after the Eagles capped that 2024 season with a dominant win over the Kansas City Chiefs in the Super Bowl: “I’ve never been a champion at the highest level before, but I thought my hard work would be justified by winning it all,” Brown wrote. “It wasn’t. My thrill for this game comes when I dominate.”A.J. Brown had three catches for 43 yards and a touchdown in the Eagles’ 40-22 Super Bowl LIX win. (Geoff Burke / Imagn Images)Sept. 28, 2025: ‘If you’re not welcomed, not listened to, quietly withdraw.’The start of the 2025 season was a rocky one for Brown. He saw one target in the team’s Week 1 win. He had five catches on eight targets for 27 yards in Week 2. Week 3 was better, with six catches on 10 targets for 109 yards and a touchdown, but things crashed back down in Week 4 when he had two catches for 7 yards.The Eagles were 4-0, but Brown was in the worst stretch of production in his time with the Eagles. He posted a screenshot of an image on social media that featured a Bible scripture reading: “If you’re not welcomed, not listened to, quietly withdraw. Don’t make a scene. Shrug your shoulders and be on your way.”Brown downplayed the post a few days later.“Obviously, you can use that verse for anything in life, you know, so, like I said, it’s not directed at anyone,” Brown said. “Obviously, I got a lot of stuff on my phone. I got a lot of memes on my phone. People know I’m the meme king.”Oct. 21, 2025: Another cryptic social media postBrown took to social media again a few weeks after the Bible verse to share his displeasure. The Eagles were again coming off a win, 28-22 over the Minnesota Vikings, thanks to an explosive performance from the offense. Brown had four catches for 121 yards and two touchdowns for his first multi-touchdown game since Week 8 of the 2023 season.Brown shared a post on Instagram afterward, captioned, “Using me but not using me.”Nov. 11, 2025: Comments on a live streamThe Eagles beat the Green Bay Packers 10-7 a few weeks later in a defensive struggle. Brown had two catches for 13 yards. The next day, Brown was playing Madden with his friend, a streamer who goes by Janky Rondo, on the live-streaming platform Twitch.“Everything good?” Rondo asked.“No,” Brown said, chuckling. “Where have you been?”“You’re my dog,” Rondo said with a laugh. “Like, I still gotta check up.”“Like family good, yeah,” Brown continued, pausing between stints of laughter. “Everything else, no. It’s a s–––show. ‘How you been?’ I been struggling, brother.”Anyone watching the stream heard Brown blow off steam while playing as the Eagles.“If you got me on fantasy, man, get rid of me,” Brown said.Nov. 12, 2025: Doubling downBrown was aware that the comments he made on the stream were in a public realm. The receiver doubled down on what he said when asked about them.“Because after the game, I said all the right answers. Y’all still made a story,” Brown said. “In that moment where I’m just talking to my friend, having fun with my friend, I’m not apologizing for that. Like I said, ’cause if you have eyes, you can see that. And so, like, it’s not that I was throwing anybody on the bus. I’m literally trying to laugh through this s–––. This s––– is tough. But I’m trying to make fun of the situation and to try to get through it. So, you know, it is what it is, man.”As the conversation with Brown shifted to his frustrations with his role and the Eagles offense in general, he made his views abundantly clear.“You can’t just keep slapping a Band-Aid over that and you expect to win later in the year, and you think you’re gonna go to it at the end of the year,” Brown said. “It’s not gonna f–––ing happen.”A.J. Brown’s final game with the Eagles ended with a wild-card round ouster in the playoffs in January. (Bill Streicher / Imagn Images)Jan. 11, 2026: Bitter endingBrown had three catches for 25 yards in his final game in an Eagles uniform, a wild-card loss to the San Francisco 49ers. Brown had several drops in the game, including a crucial one in the fourth quarter. He also had a heated exchange in the first half of the game with head coach Nick Sirianni.Brown declined to speak to reporters after the game.June 1, 2026: Eagles trade away BrownIn a move that felt inevitable throughout the offseason, including when Philadelphia traded up in the first round of the 2026 NFL Draft to select wide receiver Makai Lemon, the Eagles waited until after the June 1 threshold before trading Brown to the Patriots.