Winners and Losers of the A.J. Brown Trade: Romeo Doubs, DeVonta Smith And More

There are so many ways to dissect the A.J. Brown trade to the New England Patriots from a fantasy football perspective. What does it do for Drake Maye? Can Jalen Hurts survive? Who gets more targets in Philly? Who’s going to come up short of previous expectations in New England? That’s why our Fantasy Life staff members got together and dialed up the winners and losers from this monumental deal.

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Winners of the A.J. Brown Trade

Ian: DeVonta Smith and Drake Maye are the most clear winners, but we also shouldn’t underestimate Dallas Goedert getting away with some absurd red-zone volume again in 2026. We've seen the veteran tight end get leaned on more than ever when one of the team's top-2 receivers was sidelined over the years.

Goedert without one of A.J.B or Smith in 2024-2025:

• Week 2, 2024: 3 receptions-38 yards-0 TD (4 targets)
• Week 3, 2024: 10-170-0 (11)
• Week 4, 2024: 7-62-0 (8)
• Week 12, 2024: 4-19-0 (5)
• Week 13, 2024: 3-35-1 (4)
• Week 18, 2024: 4-55-0 (6), only played 13 snaps
• Week 8, 2025: 3-28-2 (3)

That’s good for an average of 13.2 PPR points per game—an average that would have been good for the fifth-best mark at the position last season! Not too shabby of a newfound ceiling for the current TE15 in early ADP.

Kendall: You know we have to say DeVonta Smith … right?! A.J. Brown is vacating a career 30.5% target share in Philadelphia and Smith is going to be the biggest beneficiary. The organization from the coaches all the way to the front office has told us for a long time that there's another level that Smith can reach and it's time to believe them. They will do everything in their power to showcase him as THE WR1 on this team. He's got the talent along with the  target share now to put him on a JSN-level trajectory.

Freedman: A lot of people win with this transaction.

• A.J. Brown: He now (in my opinion) gets an upgrade at QB, and he doesn't need to compete with a DeVonta Smith-caliber No. 2 WR.
• Drake Maye: His WR room suddenly got much better.
• DeVonta Smith: Sans Brown, he now has lowkey 1,500-yard upside with the Eagles.
• All the other Eagles (except for one obvious person): Now that Brown is gone, WRs Makai Lemon and Dontayvion Wicks, TE Dallas Goedert and even RB Saquon Barkley all get slight boosts.

Chris: Over the past two seasons, the top-3 target earners when Jalen Hurts has been under pressure have been A.J. Brown, DeVonta Smith,and … Saquon Barkley. The dynamic RB who fueled the Eagles' SB run in 2024 stands to benefit from the bevy of looks open to the rest of the team as he's remained one of Hurts' go-to options in the passing game. Plus, as the offense continues to emphasize more middle-of-the-field concepts, Barkley's skills as an above-average route runner, combined with the bump in volume, will bring him closer to his OPOY campaign than the dud he put up last season.

Cooterdoodle - Fans of football & dopamine win on this one. More deep balls. More deep plays. Sign me up.

Coach Gene: For Jalen Hurts, this is addition by subtraction. If A.J. Brown is unhappy and demanding the football, it messes up the chemistry and the camaraderie of the offense. Every time Hurts doesn't target A.J. Brown, he has to worry about the backlash of what Brown says or does. With Brown gone, Hurts can return to focusing on making the best play and targeting the open receiver. Playing free and just allowing the game to come to him is when Hurts is in his flow state. This could improve his numbers as a passer and as a rusher. 

Jake T: Every dreamer with a wish and a share (or 12) of Makai Lemon in dynasty. I knew the Brown trade was imminent, especially after the Eagles traded up with their sworn enemies (the Cowboys) to make sure they got Lemon in the first round. But I’d be lying if I didn’t breathe a sigh of relief to see the trade actually go through. It’s Lemon time; it’s Sour SZN, y’all.

Pfeifer: Fantasy football drafters fully benefit from this move. A.J. Brown’s trade to New England gives us the potential of two top-12 fantasy wideouts– Brown and DeVonta Smith, making the wide receiver position even more loaded. Especially when you consider the boost it should give to Makai Lemon.

Losers of the A.J. Brown Trade

Ian: The Eagles? Is that OK to say out loud? Look, team chemistry is important, and clearly Arthur Juan Brown was done with the Nick Sirianni and Jalen Hurts experiences. Still: We’re talking about most people’s ideas of a top-5 real-life receiver and perennial top-12 option in fantasy land … being gone!

Maybe DeVonta Smith does indeed dominate as an alpha No. 1 option, Makai Lemon proves capable of contributing at a high level from Day 1, and first-time OC Sean Mannion improves this stale offensive scheme … but that’s quite a bit of wishful thinking for an offense that just lost most people’s idea of a *great* wide receiver–one who regularly shifted the gravity of opposing defenses thanks to his big-play, downfield dominance.

Extra smiles in the locker room are a good thing. You know what’s not a good thing? Extra defenders in the box and additional defensive attention to Smith … because A.J. Brown is no longer on the football field. It’s fair to be excited about what Smith can do with more targets, but that shouldn’t be confused with this offense necessarily being better. Last year’s Eagles offense ranked 19th in scoring–we shouldn’t assume that’s the floor here in a passing game that just got rid of, you know, the franchise’s second-most productive receiver of the last quarter century (shoutout D-Jax!).

Freedman: The trade is good for almost everyone … except for the Eagles in general and QB Jalen Hurts, in particular. The Eagles offense is now less potent … and it has a first-time playcaller in OC Sean Mannion, who also happens to be the team's seventh playcaller in seven years.

Say whatever you want about Brown as a locker room guy: The Eagles are worse off now than they were before the trade, and Hurts—who has regressed as a passer over the past two seasons—now has a diminished unit of receivers.

Chris: Remember the clips of Drake Maye launching deep strikes to TreVeyon Henderson during training camp last year that we all RT'd or now look at fondly like the Wolverine meme? Good times. But now, after the Patriots have added A.J. Brown, brought in Romeo Doubs, and retained Mack Hollins and Hunter Henry, the paths for Henderson as a receiver continue to disappear. And with Rhamondre Stevenson reclaiming his RB1 title during the playoffs, Henderson's uphill battle to recapture the flashes of his rookie season just got steeper.

Cooterdoodle: Jim Murphy (y’know, the author of Brown’s favorite sideline page turner, Inner Excellence. I have a feeling he won’t be needing it this season.)

Coach Gene: When the Patriots didn't bring back Stefon Diggs, I literally thought it was Kayshon Boutte time. Then the Patriots traded for Romeo Doubs, and although his presence meant there was another player for Boutte to compete with for targets, there were still more than enough passes to go around. But the moment A.J. Brown lands on your team, that’s the moment when 140-plus targets disappear from sight. So now, what could have been a backdoor WR1 workload in Year 3 for the former LSU pass catcher, is now going to be a fight for WR2 or WR3 targets.

Jake T: Fans of NFL soap operas and locker room melodrama. Pretty much from the day he landed in Philadelphia, AJB has provided a certain type of fan with watercooler gossip and meme-able moments. Will those folks get a new season of “their stories” to watch in New England? Will any tensions between Brown and Maye feel genuine? Or like a cheap rip-off of the original? Like any spin-off, there’s a chance it could fall flat.

Pfeifer: For about two months, Romeo Doubs was the WR1, in line for plenty of targets. And although it was fun to envision Doubs seeing high usage from Drake Maye, we knew it wouldn’t last. With Green Bay last year, Doubs accounted for 32% of the Packers’ targets from inside the 10-yard line, the eighth-highest rate in football. It’s unlikely he sees similar red-zone volume alongside Brown, making him nothing more than a bench player in fantasy leagues.

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