FOXBOROUGH, Mass. (AP) — A.J. Brown is leaving a frustrating experience in Philadelphia for a reunion in New England with his first NFL coach.
The Eagles traded the star receiver to the Patriots on Monday, putting a cap on the long-rumored deal.
The Eagles said they will receive a first-round pick in 2028 and a fifth-round pick in 2027 for the three-time Pro Bowler.
The trade comes after a frustrating 2025 season for Brown in Philadelphia, in which he had grown dispirited with an Eagles offense that played uninspired football at times while the team failed to defend its Super Bowl title.
Brown played under Vrabel for three seasons after being drafted by the Tennessee Titans in 2019.
Brown, 28, quickly rose to the top receiving option in Philadelphia after being traded by Tennessee to the Eagles in 2022.
He had back-to-back Pro Bowl seasons his first two seasons with the Eagles, catching 88 passes for 1,496 yards and 11 touchdowns in 2022 and 106 passes for 1,456 yards and seven TDs in 2023.
He earned a Super Bowl ring during the 2024 season, but began to grow unhappy last season as the Eagles offense stagnated — leading to a change at offensive coordinator following a wild-card playoff loss to San Francisco last season.
It led to an increase in chatter about the potential for a trade heading into this offseason. It didn’t happen during April’s NFL draft likely because the Eagles would have had about $43 million in dead cap money for 2026 compared to about $16 million this year and $27 million next year if traded after June 1.
Ultimately a high draft pick proved to be enough to persuade them to deal a player of Brown’s caliber.
The Patriots have been viewed as a possible landing spot for Brown since they released receiver Stefon Diggs in March. Diggs led New England with 85 receptions and 1,013 yards receiving with four touchdowns in his only season in New England in 2025, helping the Patriots reach the Super Bowl, where they lost to the Seattle Seahawks.
Diggs’ exit made finding a No. 1 receiving option for quarterback Drake Maye a priority. The Patriots did add former Green Bay Packers receiver Romeo Doubs in free agency. But he doesn’t instantly change an offense the way Brown’s addition could.
Maye acknowledged last week that he was aware of the Brown-to-New England rumors.
“If he ends up being on our team, great. What a great player. And if he doesn’t, we’ve still got to work these guys here,” Maye said. “It’s a tough balance, but I know he’s a phenomenal player.”
Patriots defensive tackle Milton Williams, who was on the Eagles 2024 Super Bowl-winning team with Brown, said the receiver would be a big addition.
“He can definitely help our team,” Williams said. “Great dude. Monster on the field, great in the locker room, holding guys accountable and holding himself accountable. That’s everything you want in a player of his caliber.”
Brown leaves Philadelphia as one of the top receivers in franchise history. He topped 1,000 yards receiving all four seasons with the Eagles. He totaled 339 total receptions and 32 touchdowns and was a crucial member of the two Eagles teams that played in the Super Bowl during his tenure.
Vrabel was entering his second season as coach of the Titans when the team selected Brown in the second round of the 2019 draft.
Brown caught 185 passes for 2,995 yards and 24 touchdowns over the next three years, peaking with a 2020 season in which he earned a Pro Bowl selection after pulling in 70 receptions for 1,075 yards and 11 touchdowns.
But the Titans wound up trading Brown to Philadelphia on the second day of the 2022 draft that April despite having a season left on his rookie deal. The team was adamant that it wasn’t its preference to trade him but felt his asking price for an extension was too high.
Vrabel stated multiple times during that offseason that Brown would be on the roster as long as he was the coach, but the realities of the situation changed things.
“Unfortunately, we understand that if we’re going to be here awhile we’re not going to be able to keep every single player that we draft and develop,” Vrabel said at the time.
Four years later, he’ll get to coach him again.
AP NFL: https://apnews.com/NFL
New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft talks with head coach Mike Vrabel during a community NFL football day, Wednesday, May 20, 2026, in Foxborough, Mass. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
NEW YORK (AP) — Oil prices rose Monday following the latest fighting to threaten the U.S.-Iran ceasefire, but Wall Street isn’t very worried, and U.S. stocks ticked to more records.
The S&P 500 added 0.3% to its prior all-time high set on Friday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 46 points, or 0.1%, and the Nasdaq composite climbed 0.4% to likewise set records.
A slight majority of U.S. stocks actually fell, including companies with big fuel bills hurt by higher oil prices. United Airlines lost 2.6%, and Alaska Air Group fell 3.3% after the price for a barrel of Brent crude oil climbed 4.2% to settle at $94.98. That clawed back a chunk of Brent’s loss from last week and means it’s still well above its price of roughly $70 from before the war.
Expensive oil has already sent inflation higher, which increases not only bills for households but also yields in the bond market. High yields worldwide recently have threatened to slow economies and undercut prices for stocks and all kinds of other investments.
But yields regressed during the day after oil prices came off their highest levels. That eased some of the pressure on Wall Street, and the Russell 2000 index of the smallest U.S. stocks went from a loss of 1.3% back to roughly even before finishing with a dip of 0.5%. Small companies can feel the pinch of higher borrowing costs in particular because of the need for many to borrow to grow.
Hope, meanwhile, seems to remain on Wall Street that the United States and Iran will ultimately reach an agreement to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, allow deliveries of oil to resume from the Persian Gulf and ease the upward pressure on inflation.
Strength from several market heavyweights also helped to power Wall Street.
Nvidia was the strongest force lifting the market and rose 6.2% after CEO Jensen Huang announced several product updates at a conference. What Nvidia does matters immensely for the U.S. stock market because it’s the biggest in terms of overall market value. That means the movements for its stock carry more weight on the S&P 500 than any other’s.
And Wall Street’s biggest companies have been growing so much that they’re dominating the market. The top 10 stocks control nearly half the S&P 500’s total market value, a 40-year high, according to Thomas Carroll, equity market strategist at Stifel.
That worked well as Big Tech stocks shot higher thanks to exuberance around artificial intelligence. But it could also weigh on the index if the market’s leadership broadens, Carroll warns. Even if most stocks end up rising in such a rotation, stagnation or declines for Big Tech heavyweights could drag on S&P 500 index funds.
A key indicator Carroll follows about market breadth “is signaling a rotation is coming,” he wrote in a report.
Elsewhere on Wall Street, Science Applications International Corp. jumped 10.4% after becoming the latest U.S. company to report bigger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. SAIC also raised forecasts for upcoming financial results.
A cavalcade of such better-than-expected profit reports has helped the U.S. stock market push to records despite the uncertainty created by the war with Iran.
Berkshire Hathaway fell 0.9% after saying it would buy homebuilder Taylor Morrison Home for $6.8 billion. It’s one of the first big acquisitions announced by the company since Greg Abel took over as its leader from famed investor Warren Buffett. Taylor Morrison Home jumped 22.3%.
MGM Resorts International leaped 16.1% after People Inc., Barry Diller’s business that was formerly known as IAC, offered to buy the rest of the company it doesn’t already own for $48.30 per share in cash.
All told, the S&P 500 rose 19.90 points to 7,599.96. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 46.42 to 51,078.88, and the Nasdaq composite rose 114.19 to 27,086.81.
In the bond market, Treasury yields climbed with oil prices and after a report said growth in U.S. manufacturing accelerated by more last month than economists expected. The yield for the 10-year Treasury briefly approached 4.52% before regressing to 4.46%, up from 4.45% late Friday.
High yields have already forced the average long-term U.S. mortgage rate to its most expensive level in nine months, and they could curtail companies’ borrowing to build the AI data centers that have supported the U.S. economy’s growth recently.
In stock markets abroad, indexes fell in Europe following a stronger finish in Asia.
Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 rose 0.9% to an all-time high. SoftBank Group, the investment company that focuses heavily on AI, soared 21.2% and surpassed Toyota to become Japan’s most valuable listed company.
In South Korea, the Kospi index jumped 3.7% to a record after data showed the country’s exports surged 53% in May from a year earlier, buoyed by global demand for semiconductors.
AP Business Writers Chan Ho-him and Matt Ott contributed.
Trader Edward Curran works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Monday, June 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
Specialists Philip Finale, left, and Meric Greenbaum work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Friday, May 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
Currency traders watch monitors near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, June 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
Currency traders work near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, June 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
A currency trader talks on the phone at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, June 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
