NFL news: AJ Brown and Odell Beckham Jr trades highlight potential wide receiver moves

With the NFL’s first game of the 2026 season 100 days away, at least two teams — the Philadelphia Eagles and New York Giants — are looking to make significant roster decisions with big-name receivers, and those moves involve AJ Brown and Odell Beckham Jr. it may arrive on monday.

The Giants, who have been in contact with Beckham for more than a month, are expected to land the receiver on Monday, a source confirmed to OutKick and Fox News Digital.

The Giants worked out JuJu Smith-Schuster, Anthony Miller and Braxton Berrios on Monday. Smith-Schuster knows the team’s offense because he played under Giants coordinator Matt Nagy in Kansas City last season.

Beckham, 33, wants to return to the club that called him in 2014 and has been working to secure a contract and opportunity for weeks. Beckham even attended the team’s softball game over the weekend and was fully engaged with quarterback Jaxson Dart and other players.

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The Giants need receiver help after losing Gunner Olszewski for the season to what the team believes is an Achilles tear.

And while Beckham isn’t the special teams contributor that Olszewski or Berrios can be, he is a favorite of coach John Harbaugh and brings insurance that Malik Nabors has yet to prove he’s fully ready to be on the field following ACL surgery in October and a cleaning procedure to remove a scar in April.

While the Giants are looking to add receiver help, the Eagles can now financially make a move on star receiver AJ Brown.

That’s because June 1 opens the salary cap avenues to allow a team to trade a star receiver.

Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver AJ Brown catches a touchdown pass over Dallas Cowboys running back DaRon Bland during the first half of an NFL game in Arlington, Texas, on Nov. 23, 2025. (Julio Cortez/AP)

Those moves that begin Monday allow Philadelphia to spread that trade weight over multiple seasons rather than getting more in 2026, which the Eagles couldn’t realistically control. June 1 dramatically reduced the cap hit immediately and made trading more manageable.

Before June 1, trading Brown would have forced the Eagles to pay $43.4 million, making the deal financially unviable. That 2026 dead money payment dropped to $16.3 million on Monday because it is now being spread over multiple seasons.

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The Eagles have been involved with multiple teams regarding a trade for Brown since before the NFL Draft.

And the team that has shown the most interest in Brown has always been the New England Patriots. But there is a problem:

The Eagles want a first-round pick in exchange for Brown.

The Patriots don’t want to give up a 2027 first-round pick. And no one else, so far, according to multiple league sources.

AJ Brown of the Philadelphia Eagles reacts after a game against the Los Angeles Rams at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia, Pa., on Sept. 21, 2025. (Mitchell Leff/Getty Images)

So, even though the Eagles are now financially strapped to make a trade, they don’t want to make what they believe would be a fire sale for a very talented receiver. They want what team general manager Howie Rosen is satisfied with the market value of a good player.

That leaves the question of why the Eagles are willing to part with a talented player at age 29 (later this month), when he is still in his productive years?

However, everyone in the NFL knows that for much of the past year, there have been signs of Brown’s frustration with his role in Philadelphia’s offense, especially last season when the passing game took a backseat to the Eagles’ run-heavy approach focused on 2,000-yard rusher Saquon Barkley.

Brown has sometimes gone public and sometimes through private social media messages expressing dissatisfaction with his role on the team and even with quarterback Jalen Hurts. Eagles coaches, teammates and sometimes even Brown himself have had to respond to the inconvenience of having a seemingly dissatisfied player on the roster despite his $32 million contract per year making him the NFL’s seventh highest paid receiver.

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The reason why other teams, media and fans will not be surprised by this trade is that Philadelphia used the offseason to add depth and prepare for the future without Brown.

That tomorrow seems closer since Monday morning.

FOLLOW ARMANDO SALGUERO ON X: @ARMANDOSALGUERO