1 minute ago, paco said:

Haters will say it's fake.

love that AI decided to randomly add Smith to the pic

12 minutes ago, paco said:

love that AI decided to randomly add Smith to the pic

Gotta love that there’s also two reddicks

12 minutes ago, paco said:

love that AI decided to randomly add Smith to the pic

I personally love that Reddick is there twice. They are wearing different-colored shoes to tell each other apart.

He even cloned himself to have two lockers right next to each other!

The grass isn't always greener on the other side AJ. (cough Tyreek cough). Enjoy the Vrabral drama. Oh yeah there is thing called the Super Bowl Hangover. I still trust Jalen, Devonta, Saquon and Goedert to hold it down.

1 hour ago, paco said:

Clearly he reads the board and is copying me

Wrong. I expect Howie to turn that 2027 5th into a 2032 1st, because it's black and white, and that's how it should be measured. 🤣

19 minutes ago, KINGnabb said:

The grass isn't always greener on the other side AJ. (cough Tyreek cough). Enjoy the Vrabral drama. Oh yeah there is thing called the Super Bowl Hangover. I still trust Jalen, Devonta, Saquon and Goedert to hold it down.

If the story is true and AJ got butt Hurts over his mistress, then he and Vrabal will have a lot in common and shared experiences to bond over. Maybe it's why he wanted to reunite with Vrabal- Sirianni and Hurts are too straight laced for him and he needs an environment where cheating is not only accepted, but inherent. If so, Vrabal and NE are a comfortable environment for him.

Basically just says they grew apart but nothing happened.

Still not buying it. In a 4 year span you go from saying "trade me if you aren't paying Hurts" to not inviting each other to your weddings? I get that people grow apart and things change with friendships, usually because you each live your own separate life. These guys spend the majority of the year together.

8 hours ago, eagle45 said:

The year matters in more ways than one...but in less predictable ways than more traditional GM's than Howie view it.

Traditionally, they look at draft picks like investible money. $10 now with compound interest is work more than $10 later. But draft picks don't work that way. Even though legit NFL FO professionals irrationally used to say that a pick 1 year later is worth 1 round lower.

Then there is the job security element. Most GMs don't want to stack the deck with good picks in the future for their replacement. It's to the detriment of their franchise, but I sympathize with that pressure. That doesn't exist as a concern for Howie.

So it does matter...it just shouldn't matter. I realize it's semantics, but I think it's an important distinction.

All that said...there are strong drafts and there are weak drafts. Deferring picks doesn't matter...but stacking them in strong drafts does. That's quite a bit harder to play 3D chess on because it's very tricky to reliably identify the strength of the draft 2 college football seasons in advance. 1? Sure, maybe. As an example...in January 2026, I think it was possible to identify that the 2027 draft figured to be stronger and more talented in round 1 than 2026. 2028? We really can't speak to that one yet. They've got 2 college seasons to play before that one is projectable. Howie just took the pick he could get.

Part of the issue is replacing the talent the team is losing. Cleveland needed a player in return for Garrett. They also would have been better off from a return perspective getting a 2028 1st round pick from the Rams. They already had 8 picks in the 2027 draft. They are getting a late first round pick for Garrett. There's an argument that the better value for them would be the Rams' 2028 first round pick.

5 minutes ago, LeanMeanGM said:

Basically just says they grew apart but nothing happened.

Still not buying it. In a 4 year span you go from saying "trade me if you aren't paying Hurts" to not inviting each other to your weddings? I get that people grow apart and things change with friendships, usually because you each live your own separate life. These guys spend the majority of the year together.

Maybe something personal happened. I doubt it. If Hurts betrayed Brown in some type of way, I think there would have been far more of a locker room faction thing going on. I think AJ Brown is a very temperamental guy, is a bit of an oddball, and he probably got pissed at Hurts got not wanting to change the offense and being really stubborn(per the Jalen Hurts reports from ESPN and elsewhere that he was resistant to change). AJ Brown probably took it personally like Jalen Hurts was willing to hurt the careers and legacies of others out of pure stubbornness.

I mean, far more negativity has come out of that Eagles building about Jalen Hurts than AJ Brown over the past 3 years. Ask yourself why that is. A lot of people are eager to throw Hurts under the bus. Meanwhile, Berman said last night on the pod that a high ranking Eagles official contacted Berman and told him that his trade piece better paint AJ in a positive light because AJ Brown is one of the most beloved people in the organization and AJ Brown is an amazing dude. And Berman said the source talked about how much he/she absolutely love AJ.

Weirdo

2 minutes ago, LeanMeanGM said:

Basically just says they grew apart but nothing happened.

Still not buying it. In a 4 year span you go from saying "trade me if you aren't paying Hurts" to not inviting each other to your weddings? I get that people grow apart and things change with friendships, usually because you each live your own separate life. These guys spend the majority of the year together.

She didn't drill him. Taking plays off was never mentioned. The deleted tweets wasn't brought up

I get playing for the team that was your favorite as a kid

Talking about accountability from Bill and Pats to Vrabel is odd considering his actions but whatever

1 hour ago, eagle45 said:

I agree that Howie doesn’t devalue deferred picks, nor should he.

However, I would value 2027 over 2028 simply because we already know 2027 is shaping up as a very strong draft. IMO, that definitely adds value.

The Pats being ripe for a SB hangover season doesn’t hurt either.

The 2027 class is being hyped because of the QB class. The 2028 draft may be deeper at more positions. I think Howie likely would have preferred a 2027 first round pick but obviously thought the 2028 pick was just as good. I do agree that the Pats are likely to have a worse record than last season. OTOH, they still have a pretty easy schedule based on projected win totals. They have 2 teams in their division that seem to be trying to tank for a QB in the 2027 draft. I still think they will have a winning record.

A.J. helped us win a superbowl. But he either is wearing down or did take some plays off last year. It was time to move on. I have nothing against the guy until we play them.

Meanwhile you had some people here who spent all season and off-season trying to argue that AJ never meant anything by his public comments/social media posts and it was all the media making things up/taking stuff out of context.

32 minutes ago, LeanMeanGM said:

Basically just says they grew apart but nothing happened.

Still not buying it. In a 4 year span you go from saying "trade me if you aren't paying Hurts" to not inviting each other to your weddings? I get that people grow apart and things change with friendships, usually because you each live your own separate life. These guys spend the majority of the year together.

I’m with you obviously something happened that was big enough to kind of push them apart. I don’t know what it is. I think some of it was on field with his performance and eventually effecting his future earnings. I do think something personal off the field as well. I kind of find the whole massage therapist thing with riddick less probable. The reason I say that, I see all these people on Twitter now saying oh yeah I’ve had sources show me and tell me this months ago or confirmed it today. But I just kept it quiet all the way till now. Saying they had no reason to say anything or lie. except the fact a guy wanting to leaving your team you feel slighted and feels good to kick him and make him look bad on the way out. maybe it happened, but i have a hard time believing on twitter people sat on the info for months knowing he was getting dealt and how the season played out.

I think his performance and money makes way more sense about why he doesn’t wanna be here anymore and caused a rift on the field with hurts/brown. He probably believes he could be the most dominant wide receiver in the league. He also likely believes seeing how the passing offenses looked the last two years that he’s not gonna be able to do it here. And if he’s not able to put up the statistics like he did the first two years he was in Philadelphia (because of how the offense is going) then it’s also going to reflect that he is declining. which he very well might be and it’s gonna affect his bottom dollar.

I’ve said this multiple times, he only has 4 million guaranteed after 2026. He is going to ask for either more guaranteed money, an extension or a new deal. He is not gonna be able to get the money he wants if he goes out there in 2026 and it looks like he did in 2024 and 2025. Cause it’s gonna be used against him that he’s 30 years old, that he’s declining look at the numbers and his knees also being an issue. Meanwhile, if he gets traded somewhere else they’ve already spent the assets to get them they’re more likely to give him an extension because they need to after giving up the assets they did.

2 hours ago, NCiggles said:

I don't think the pick being in 2028 was ever an issue. My guess is that Howie does not discount the value of a 2028 pick like another GM may.

I suspect the 5th, being their best 5th, probably was a partial result of Howie arguing the difference between a 2027 first and taking a 2028 first. Belichek always tried to add Day 3 sweeteners to his trades and Howie seems to have picked up on that. He did that with the cowpads on the trade up for Lemon, for example.

12 hours ago, LeanMeanGM said:

Smith has an extra year plus some games AJ missed

I didn't look. I thought A.J. was here longer than Smith.

He really is the anti-TO. TO fought to come here and loved it here. Thinks back at his time here as the best of his career. He did not want to be cut/traded and would have wanted to stay here.

55 minutes ago, LeanMeanGM said:

Basically just says they grew apart but nothing happened.

Still not buying it. In a 4 year span you go from saying "trade me if you aren't paying Hurts" to not inviting each other to your weddings? I get that people grow apart and things change with friendships, usually because you each live your own separate life. These guys spend the majority of the year together.

I think the being together all the time became the issue. Some relationships need space.

I knew a couple guys in high school that were best friends. They decided to room together at Rutgers as freshmen. They weren't speaking to each other by the end of the year.

Howie strategically drafting a player with a June 2nd birthday to deflect the conversation.

So...it's done. I wanted a 2027 3rd and 2028 1st, so close enough. The real question is - was AJ's decline last year more a function of him putting forth less than total effort, or is he starting to decline? I think the answer is a bit of both. There was no world where Howie was going to extend him again, so he wanted to go somewhere to get stats and try for one last big contract. The contract was structured to move on after 2026 (either trade or post June 1 cut), so we get a future 1st for moving off him a year early. Good business.

As for the impact on offense, given the radical change in scheme, looking at Hurts' numbers without AJ is probably not very helpful. This year is all about how well Jalen and the rest of the offense pick up Mannion's scheme, and is the O Line healthy.

Brown helped us to a Super Bowl and I will forever be grateful for that. His effort level last year, however, was unforgivable. His effort and poor play led directly to losses against Denver and San Francisco. If you want out, so be it, but playing with effort is non-negotiable. He no longer was a trustworthy player here. It blows my mind the level that his teammates have defended him at least to the media. His crappy effort was all over the film.

6 minutes ago, Connecticut Eagle said:

Howie strategically drafting a player with a June 2nd birthday to deflect the conversation.

I wonder if Omar Khan was on the phone with him when Howie tried to call him to say happy birthday…

He’s gone. In a truly team focused. OTAs today