How Jaelan Phillips’ and Alec Pierce’s obscene paydays affect A.J. Brown’s future with the Eagles

Jaelen Phillips is a good guy and a good player, but there’s no planet in God’s wide universe on which Phillips is worth $120 million.

The Carolina Panthers on Monday set the free-agent market before legal tampering was even an hour old. They gave Phillips $30 million on average over the next four years, which, objectively, is about $10 million more than he’s worth in any sane market, and about $5 million more than he’s worth if the market had gone just a little bit mad. But $30 million? That’s nuts.

Had the Eagles re-signed Phillips, they likely would have felt a salary-cap pinch that would have made them more reluctant to trade disgruntled receiver A.J. Brown. Now, for the moment, they could more easily absorb the $43.4 million cap hit that would come with trading Brown before June 1, according to Over the Cap. That hit would be $16.3 million after June 1.

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The critique of Phillips’ contract has nothing to do with Phillips. Good for him. It is every player’s duty to extract from the 32 greedy ownership groups as much money as possible every chance they get. I hope he enjoys the money, because this deal will not be fair to Phillips. He will never be able to live up to its expectations.

He now makes close to the same kind of money as edges like Maxx Crosby, who averages $35.5 million, and Nick Bosa, who averages $34 million. Through their first five seasons they had 52 and 53½ sacks, respectively. Phillips has 28.

Phillips also has missed 22 games in five seasons. The bottom line: He’s a specialty player with an injury history. By 2028, this signing is going to make Carolina fans flash back to mistakes of yesterday, like washout defensive tackle Sean Gilbert in 1998 and 38-year-old kicker Olindo Mare in 2011.

Full disclosure: I was never in favor of bringing Phillips back for anything more than two years and anything more than $50 million, and I knew that was always far less than he would get. But that’s what he was worth.

Full recognition: This free-agent market stinks, and in below-average markets, above-average players get superstar money.

Which brings us to Alec Pierce.

The Colts gave their top receiver four years and $116 million, the most money any receiver to hit the open market has ever gotten, and, again, far more than Pierce is worth.

In four seasons he has averaged 39.3 catches with a high of 47, 733.5 yards with a high of 1,003, and 4.3 touchdowns with a high of seven. He stretches the field — his yards-per-catch led the league the last two seasons — but, again, we’re looking at a one-trick pony here, and that trick isn’t especially lethal.

To be fair, in his first three seasons, Pierce’s quarterbacks were Matt Ryan, who had one foot in the broadcast booth; Gardner Minshew, who is Gardner Minshew; and Anthony Richardson in his first season as a starter. Pierce had his best year in 2025, when Daniel Jones arrived.

Pierce’s move could affect the Eagles’ disposition on Brown. The Birds last week rejected an offer from the Patriots of first- and third-round picks for Brown, likely in 2027, according to ALLCITY Network.

That was when Pierce was headed for the open market, where the Patriots were expected to make a run at Pierce.

Could the Patriots now sweeten their offer for Brown?

Do they even need to?

NFL reporter Josina Anderson reported Monday afternoon that the Eagles are considering a similar offer from the Patriots: a first-round pick in 2027 and a second-round pick in this April’s draft.

Of course, considering the two trade reports contradict each other — one says the Eagles declined a deal that included a first-round pick, while the other says the Patriots are reluctant to surrender a first-round pick — neither report should be treated as gospel.

Yet.