Welcome to Week 5 of the 2025 Footballguys Roundtable. Our intrepid panel of fantasy pundits discusses and debates four topics every week. We split the conversation into separate features.
This week's roundtable features these four topics:
Let's roll...
Matt Waldman: Our newswire summarized the A.J. Brown-Eagles situation this way...
During the 2024 playoffs, Eagles receiver A.J. Brown turned Inner Excellence into a best seller while reading it on the bench. After Sunday's win over the Buccaneers, he quoted from the best-selling book of all time. Brown tweeted a line from the New Testament: "If you're not welcomed, not listened to, quietly withdraw. Don't make a scene. Shrug your shoulders and be on your way." Via Jeff McLane of the Philadelphia Inquirer, the tweet was directed "at someone ...internally with the Eagles."
Footballguys view: As PFT's Mike Florio noted, Brown was targeted nine times on Sunday, resulting in only two catches for seven yards. Although he had six receptions for 109 yards and a touchdown in a Week 3 rally against the Rams, Brown had one catch (on one target) for eight yards in Week 1 against Dallas and five catches for 27 yards at Kansas City in Week 2. Last December, then-Eagles DE Brandon Graham publicly disclosed the existence of "personal stuff" between Brown and quarterback Jalen Hurts. It's an issue to watch with Brown sitting at WR46 with 8.8 points per game.
How do you approach Brown as a potential resource in re-draft and dynasty?
Jason Wood: As a lifelong Eagles fan, this situation is of particular interest. The short answer is that I think A.J. Brown is unlikely to be on the Eagles beyond 2025, and the odds favor his being traded to another team before this year’s trade deadline.
While his recent comments are driving the conversation, it is important to look back at what he said after the Super Bowl win. Brown openly admitted that winning the Super Bowl was not satisfying to him because he did not dominate.
I will put aside whether that viewpoint makes sense to those of us who never suited up, or whether it comes off as selfish. What matters is that we understand how his mind works. If he is not putting up big numbers, he is unhappy.
In a perfect world, he would be thrilled that the team is 4-0 and not focused on personal accolades. That is not how he operates, and in truth, it is probably how most alpha receivers think.
To that end, Howie Roseman is aggressive and will not hesitate to trade Brown away, just as he aggressively traded for him years ago during the NFL draft. Brown is still in his prime, and there is no reason to think he has lost his ability to dominate. His struggles stem entirely from Kevin Patullo’s play-calling and Jalen Hurts’ on-field tendencies, not from any decline in talent.
For fantasy purposes, I would separate redraft from dynasty. In redraft, Brown will likely endure another month or two of misuse and mounting frustration until the team coordinates a trade.
In dynasty, I would be an aggressive buyer. Wherever he lands, he will be treated as the alpha receiver with a target share of 25 percent or higher. As long as he ends up with a competent quarterback, he has many years of fantasy relevance ahead.
Dave Kluge: Despite the mysterious tweet, Brown appears to have shown some maturity this year regarding his reduced usage. In an interview with Fox Sports’ Jordan Schultz, he mentioned that his primary goal was to win.
For those who drafted him in fantasy, he’s still usable, just not quite what you drafted him to be. In Week 3, the Eagles found themselves in a close game and had to step on the gas. Brown amassed 109 yards and a touchdown in just the second half.
The upside is still there. However, the Eagles don’t often find themselves in that position. Brown was drafted to be a plug-and-play WR1. This change in usage, however, makes him more of a boom-or-bust WR3.
David Zacharias: Until the apparent feud between Brown and his quarterback gets resolved, Brown is a risky fantasy start. The Eagles are 4-0 at Brown's (unexpectedly low) level of utilization and production, so there's little incentive for the Eagles to make drastic changes to their overall game plan philosophy or execution.
Brown is a talented football player, as evidenced by his WR16 finish in 2024 (despite playing only 13 games). He's a hold in both redraft and dynasty until the emotional component of this situation resolves, either by a clearing of the air in the Philadelphia locker room or Brown's trade to a different team.
As the drama of this situation escalates, a buy-low dynasty opportunity may be available from an owner contending this year.
Josh Fahlsing: You are probably forced to hold Brown right now if you are sitting on him in a dynasty league. He has plummeted from a top-5 wide receiver option to a wide receiver two on a week-to-week basis. His targets and opportunities are inconsistent. The offense is not only run-first, but it seems to be struggling to find its footing so far in 2025. But he's still A.J. Brown.
If you trade him now, you are most likely doing so while his value is just about as low as we've ever seen it. That's bad dynasty business for a guy who is still only 28 years old and has had stretches where he has dominated games.
He isn't helping you win games right now, that's for sure, but his value will bubble up again once Philadelphia gets its offense revved up. I don't blame any dynasty manager looking to get out of their shares of Brown. I just think he's still too young and too talented to give up for pennies on the dollar.
In redraft...Run! Run for your life!
I realize you probably spent an earlier pick on him than you want to talk about, and I realize it makes very little sense in most leagues to just outright cut him, but if I am holding him in a redraft, I am considering him no better than a matchup play on a week-to-week basis until he starts to be a more consistent producer. He can still pay off a good portion of the draft capital you invested in him, but you might have to adjust expectations and understand that for him to do so, you will have to make good choices regarding when to put him in the lineup.