Philadelphia Eagles reach biggest deal for WR with A.J. Brown

The Philadelphia Eagles have reached a three-year, $96 million contract extension with their wide receiver A.J. Brown, ESPN reported on Thursday.

Brown's deal set NFL records in both guaranteed money ($84 million) and average annual salary ($32 million) for the wide receiver position and surpassed the extension Amon-Ra St. Brown agreed on with the Detroit Lions on Wednesday.

Brown finished 106 catches for 1,456 yards and seven touchdowns in 17 games for the Eagles in the 2023 campaign. He surpassed 1,400 receiving yards in both seasons as an Eagle since the team traded for him with the Tennessee Titans and signed a four-year, $100 million contract with him in April 2022. He was selected into both the Pro Bowl and the Second-team All-Pro in the past two seasons.

Reaching an extension with Brown meant that the Eagles will retain their league-top receiving pair of him and DeVonta Smith for a long time – Smith until 2028 and Brown until 2029. Smith agreed to a three-year, $75 million extension, including $51 million guaranteed, with the team last week. He and Brown became the first in the Eagles' franchise history to both post over 1,000 receiving yards in one season in 2022 before repeating it in 2023.

"We try to be proactive to try to keep this team together," the Eagles' general manager Howie Roseman said. "That starts with [owner] Jeffrey [Lurie] and his support like we talked about in our pre-draft press conference and just talking about the benefits of trying to keep it together as much as we possibly can."

"The only way we can possibly do that is by doing deals early," Roseman added. "We felt like it was an opportunity to do that here with A.J. Obviously we've done a bunch of deals with a bunch of our players, and want to add to that and keep this team together as much as we possibly can. We couldn't do that without his support in allowing us to do that. We felt like the earlier we did that would be better for us and him, and him knowing that he was going to be here."

The Eagles finished the 2023 regular season with an 11-6 record and in the second place in the National Football Conference (NFC) East. They lost to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the NFC Wild Card Game in the playoffs.