As the New England Patriots return on Wednesday evening for a Super Bowl rematch on Week 1 of the 2026-27 NFL season against Seattle Seahawk s, a new chapter begins for veteran wide receiver AJ Brown.
This will be AJ Brown’s eighth season in the NFL. As Brown begins a new chapter in the NFL with the Patriots, we will take a look at key details on the superstar wide receiver. Despite the years, the 29-year-old has been posting impressive numbers, posting 78 receptions for 1,000 yards and seven touchdowns in the previous season for the Eagles.
After the 2025-26 season ended, even as trade speculations dominated headlines, AJ Brown got married to his long-term partner, Kelsey Riley. AJ Brown had made it clear after the end of the 2025-26 season that he no longer wished to remain with the Eagles, according to reports from NFL Insiders. The team eventually traded Brown to the Patriots on June 1 as it allowed them to split his salary cap across the 2026-27 and 2027-28 NFL seasons. In exchange, the Eagles got a first-round pick in the 2028 NFL draft and a fifth-round pick in the 2027 NFL draft. A Brown’s current contract with the New England Patriots puts him among the top 10 highest-paid wide receivers in the league, going into the 2026-27 season. AJ Brown has signed a three-year, $96 million contract with the Patriots, which puts his annual salary at around $32 million for the 2026-27 season. For comparison, Jaxon Smith-Njigba, the highest-paid WR in the league, makes an average of $42 million a year annually.
There has been an important update in the life of AJ Brown in the past offseason. Riley, a former college softball player, has a son with AJ Brown, Arthur Juan Brown Jr. Behind the scenes, a report emerged of a disconnect between Brown and Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts.
