A.J. Brown made his official farewell to Philly on Monday, when he was traded to the Patriots. He returned to the building to get the last of his things later in the week, and he left something behind.
On a wall with photos of the team’s Pro Bowl player, Brown applied his signature. He added a message to it.
“The best to ever play here,” Brown wrote, via Mike Garafolo of NFL Network. “Always open.”
One of the issues during his final year in Philly was that he was at times open but the ball didn’t come his way. Did that trace to whatever caused the relationship between Brown and quarterback Jalen Hurts to change?
At this point, it doesn’t matter. Brown will now attempt to be “always open” for quarterback Drake Maye. Which could help Maye take the next step from No. 2 in the MVP voting to No. 1.
The Patriots have announced their schedule for this summer’s training camp.
The team will report to camp on July 24 and their first practice will be held the next day. It will also be the first of 13 training camp practices that will be open to the public.
Patriots fans eager to get a glimpse of wide receiver A.J. Brown and other new additions will also be able to attend practices on July 26-28, July 30-31, August 1, August 3-4, and August 7.
The final three open practices of the summer will be joint sessions with other teams. They’ll practice with the Colts on August 11 before an August 13 preseason game and the Pats will also host the Eagles on August 19 and 20. Their final preseason game will be at Gillette Stadium on August 22.
The Patriots have taken care of some important business with their rookie class.
New England has signed first-round pick Caleb Lomu, the team announced on Monday.
Lomu, an offensive tackle, was selected out of Utah with the No. 28 overall pick in April. The Patriots traded up to get him, giving up the No. 31 overall pick and a fourth-round pick to the Bills for the selection.
With Will Campbell on the left side, Lomu is expected to slot in at right tackle for the Patriots.
New England now has just one remaining unsigned pick, second-round linebacker Gabe Jacas.
The best way for the circus to make money is when the circus isn’t in town. In American sports, no league has mastered that reality like the NFL.
From the Super Bowl to Week 1, the league has developed many ways to attract attention and drive interest when it’s not football season. Prior to 2006, June 1 was the occasion for a fresh wave of free agency. In 2026, June 1 made a major comeback.
The trades of defensive end Myles Garrett, defensive end Jared Verse, and receiver A.J. Brown made it a big week for the NFL. And it raises the question of whether the league and its teams will further embrace the possibility of making deals on June 1 in the future.
It’s a point raised at the tail end of an article from ESPN reviewing the trades that happened last Monday.
“I think the league will [lean into] the June 1 thing,” an unnamed AFC executive told ESPN. “It’s the summer, it’s slow, and these deals are good engagement for the league.”
They also need to be good for the teams involved, and the primary benefit for the seller comes from trading bloated contracts in the hopes of reducing the cap consequences in the current year. That’s why June 1 used to be a major date for free agency; before teams could release up to two veterans with a post-June 1 designation in March, they had to hold the contracts until June in order to spread the dead money over two years.
But if teams are willing to move highly-paid veterans — and if other teams are willing to give up significant compensation to get them — June 1 can become yet another date to circle, every year. And, yes, at some level, the NFL wants to have more tentpole events at a time when the three-ring circus is in mothballs.
After the Browns proposed expanding the universe of future picks that could be traded from three years to five (and the Rams coincidentally agreed), Rams president Kevin Demoff said, “Nothing creates more interest in the NFL than trades. This is why Cleveland’s proposal to allow teams to trade picks up to 5 years out as opposed to 3 years out makes so much sense. More picks to trade = more trades = more interest & team building options.”
The option of building a team and generating interest with June 1 trades has been hiding in plain sight, for years. In 2026, the NFL got a taste of what that day could become, if the trend continues.
Patriots left tackle Will Campbell had an up-and-down rookie season in 2025, and it ended on a down note when he struggled mightily in New England’s Super Bowl loss. Campbell believes his future has a lot more ups than downs.
Campbell noted that he was drafted at age 21 after playing three seasons at LSU, and he believes he can get a lot better.
“I’m 22, so I’m a long way from where I’m going to be in the future. It’s not like I’m great at everything and here’s one little thing [to work on]. I’m trying to make everything as a whole better,” Campbell said, via Mike Reiss of ESPN.
Campbell suffered an MCL sprain in Week 12 of last season and missed five games, and in the playoffs he looked like he might not have been fully healed. He said his physical therapy this offseason has strengthened his knee. And strengthened his prospects of becoming the player the Patriots thought they were getting with the fourth overall pick last year.
