Philadelphia Eagles star A.J. Brown recently became the highest-paid wide receiver in the NFL after signing a three-year, $96 million contract extension with the Eagles last week.
The deal will pay Brown $32 million annually—the most for any receiver in football—and also features $84 million in guarantees, which also tops all wide outs.
However, Brown doesn’t care about making the most money. He simply wants to win.
“Nothing. Nothing,” Brown said when asked about what being the highest-paid receiver meant, via Kevin Patra of NFL.com. “I want to prove it. … We don’t play on paper. Nobody cares what’s in the bank account when you step between them lines.”
Brown is coming off of a 2023 campaign in which he played every game and hauled in 106 receptions for 1,456 yards and seven touchdowns en route to his third Pro Bowl appearance.
The issue is that Brown’s production was heavily frontloaded, as he caught 60 passes for 939 yards and five touchdowns between September and October and then totaled just 46 grabs for 517 yards and two scores the rest of the year. He didn’t score a single touchdown in December or January.
Of course, Brown is hardly the only Philadelphia player who struggled in the back half of last season, as Philly lost five of its last six regular-season games before being routed by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the Wild Card Round of the playoffs.
All of that said, the 26-year-old seems content in the City of Brotherly Love and wants to end his career with the Eagles.
“When I hang my cleats up, it’s gonna be in that uniform right there,” Brown said. “… I’m not, like, ready for it to be over with, but that’s the goal. I think my career took off when I got here. I went to another level. It feels right. My family’s here. My girl started school again here. I got teammates, their kids, I want them to grow up together.”
We’ll see if A.J. Brown and Co. can put together a more consistent campaign in 2024.
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