The Eagles and Patriots have been linked in trade speculation this offseason, but the two teams have not come together to make a deal this month.
They have been able to agree on something else, however. Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni said on Monday that his team will hold joint practices with Mike Vrabel and the Patriots during training camp this summer. Those practices will take place in New England.
Sirianni’s announcement came during a session that also saw him echo General Manager Howie Roseman’s answer to questions about wide receiver A.J. Brown’s status. Roseman said on Sunday that Brown remains on the Eagles’ roster when asked about trading the wideout and Sirianni said the same thing on Monday.
Trading Brown after June 1 would work out better for the Eagles for cap purposes and the Patriots have frequently been cited as a likely landing spot due to their need at the position as well as Brown’s history with Vrabel from Tennessee. If the trade does go down, Sirianni and company will still have a chance to catch up with the receiver in August.
Patriots Clips
An Eagles’ trade of wide receiver A.J. Brown has felt “inevitable” since March. The question seems more of when, not if, with a post-June 1 trade a possibility.
Eagles General Manager Howie Roseman revealed nothing on Sunday.
“I understand that there’s interest in the A.J. Brown story,” Roseman said, via Dave Zangaro of NBC Sports Philly. “Unfortunately, I don’t have a home under a rock. But my answer to any question on A.J. Brown is that A.J. Brown is a member of the Eagles. From my perspective, anything you ask me about A.J. Brown, I’m going to go right back to that answer. But I understand the interest. I put on TV and I see that there’s interest. But my answer is A.J. Brown is a member of the Philadelphia Eagles.”
Roseman proceeded to answer multiple questions about Brown with the same answer: “A.J. Brown is a member of the Eagles,” according to Eliot Shorr-Parks of WIP94.com.
The Eagles signed veteran wide receiver Hollywood Brown to a one-year, $5 million deal in March. He would join DeVonta Smith as the team’s top two wide receivers if Brown departs.
The Eagles also signed free agent wideout Elijah Moore.
The Patriots have been the favorite to eventually land Brown, who has not made the Pro Bowl in either of the past two seasons. He had 1,079 receiving yards in 2024 and 1,003 receiving yards in 2025.
Raiders minority owner Tom Brady was interested enough in a potential comeback on the playing field to ask the NFL what the rules would be. The NFL reiterated that a player can’t also be an owner.
Brady told Alex Sherman of CNBC that when he looked into the rules, it was made clear to him that he can’t be an owner and a player at the same time.
“I actually have inquired, and they don’t like that idea very much,” Brady said. “We explored a lot of different things, and I’m very happily retired. Let me just say that, too.”
NFL rules would require Brady to sell his stake in the team before he could become an active player, and even then there could be additional questions about whether he would be a free agent or only eligible to play for the Raiders, and then whether money Brady has made as a Raiders minority owner would have to be counted against the salary cap. It wouldn’t be an easy process.
Brady played flag football last weekend but said that didn’t make him think he was going to return to the field.
“If anything, that game reconfirmed to me that I’m very happy in my retirement,” Brady said.
The 48-year-old Brady last played in 2022, when at age 45 he completed 490 of 733 passes for 4,694 yards with 25 touchdowns and nine interceptions.
The Bills will be back on top in the AFC East this year, if the betting odds are to be believed.
Buffalo is a -145 favorite to win the AFC East. That makes the Bills the heaviest favorites to win a division of any NFL team.
New England is next at +150, while the other two teams in the division are long shots: The Jets are at +1800 and the Dolphins at +2800.
The Patriots engineered a major turnaround under first-year coach Mike Vrabel and young quarterback Drake Maye last season, winning the AFC East and then winning the AFC Championship. They look like a team that could be in contention for years to come.
But the Bills had won the AFC East five years in a row prior to last year, and the odds suggest that with Josh Allen playing in first-year head coach Joe Brady’s offense, they’ll get back on top.
North Carolina coach Bill Belichick had not spoken publicly about his inexplicable Hall of Fame snub. On Tuesday, he met with reporters for the first time since the Hall of Fame voters kept Belichick out, on his first try at enshrinement.
Does Bill Belichick have any comment on being denied a bronze bust?
“No,” he said, “I’m focused on coaching this team and focused on, you know, getting Carolina football to highest level I can. That’s what I’ve always — I focus about what I can do, and things that are out of my control, I don’t worry about.”
Obviously, that’s not entirely true. When Belichick received word that he wasn’t getting in, he apparently didn’t just shrug and move on to the things he can control. Otherwise, word about his snub wouldn’t have gotten out before the new class of Hall of Famers was announced.
He has every right to be upset. He absolutely should have gotten in. Of the five-person menu that included Belichick, Robert Kraft, Ken Anderson, Roger Craig, and L.C. Greenwood, Belichick should have been one of the three choices on all 50 ballots. Hell, if each voter would have been limited to only one person, it should have been Belichick, 50 times over.
The oversight undoubtedly will be fixed in 2027. It’s the only way for the Hall of Fame to begin rebuilding its credibility. Even then, the donut hole that kept Belichick out of Canton can’t be forgotten.
The Patriots are adding some depth to their offensive line.
Former Giants offensive lineman James Hudson has agreed to a one-year deal with the Patriots, according to Ian Rapoport of NFL Network.
The Giants cut Hudson this month, a disappointing ending to his tenure with the team after he signed a two-year, $12 million contract in 2025. He was benched early in the season after committing four penalties on one drive and rarely played after that.
Originally a fourth-round pick of the Browns in 2021, Hudson played well at times in Cleveland and started 17 games for the Browns, and the Patriots will hope he can shake off his bad experience with the Giants and show he has a place in New England.
The Patriots are moving on from one of their quarterbacks.
Per Ian Rapoport of NFL Media, New England is planning to release Joshua Dobbs after the club could not find a trade partner.
Dobbs, 31, spent last season as the Patriots’ backup. But the team recently agreed to bring back Tommy DeVito on a two-year, $4.4 million deal. DeVito now appears poised to move up from No. 3 quarterback to Drake Maye’s backup in 2026.
By releasing Dobbs, the Patriots will save $3.7 million against the cap with $1.05 million in dead money.
Dobbs appeared in four games for the Patriots in 2025, completing 7-of-10 passes for 65 yards.
Since entering the league as a Steelers fourth-round pick in 2017, Dobbs has appeared in 27 games with 15 starts for Pittsburgh, Tennessee, Arizona, Minnesota, San Francisco, and New England. He’s completed 62.8 percent of his career passes for 3,346 yards with 17 touchdowns and 15 interceptions.
Defensive back Kindle Vildor is headed to New England.
Vildor’s agents Kevin Conner and Robert Brown told Adam Schefter of ESPN that their client has agreed to a one-year deal with the Patriots. No other terms of the deal have been announced.
Vildor played 12 games and made one start for the Buccaneers last season. He had 16 tackles and an interception in those appearances.
The Bears drafted Vildor in the fifth round in 2020. He also made stops in Tennessee and Detroit before joining the Buccaneers and has 140 tackles, two interceptions, a sack and a forced fumble over his entire NFL career.
This weekend, Tom Brady will participate in a flag football tournament. It could be a precursor to participating in a bigger event two years from now.
Via NFL.com, Brady addressed on Tuesday’s episode of Good Morning America whether he’d play Olympic flag football in 2028.
“I would never say never,” Brady said.
He also said it would be “unlikely.” After all, Brady will be 50 when the next Olympics happen.
“I’ll let the young Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen get out there and try to win a gold medal for the U.S.,” Brady said.
It’s unclear whether Mahomes and Allen even want to do it. Or whether they’d be picked for the team.
That remains the great unknown as to the eventual 2028 U.S. men’s Olympic team. Who will USA Football pick for the roster? How will they do it?
Some apples-to-apples insight will be developed on Saturday, when two teams of current and former NFL players (along with random celebrities) will participate in a tournament that includes the current U.S. men’s national flag-football team.
Ultimately, USA Football will have to determine whether the 2028 team will be determined by invitation or tryout. There’s plenty of merit to the notion of a team of current and former NFL players facing the U.S. men’s team in a competition to determine which group is better suited to represent the country.
Then there’s the marketing angle. Chances are that many different combinations of elite American tackle and flag football players would easily win gold. Having big names will draw bigger ratings and drive greater interest.
Saturday’s tournament merits more attention than it would have had under its prior format of three teams of NFL players and YouTubers, or whoever. The current best of the best flag football players will get a chance to show what they can do against non-flag players who may be in for a surprise when they face a motivated team of experienced flag-football players who are well versed in the nuances of that version of the sport.
The Cardinals announced the signings of linebacker Jack Gibbens, safety Andrew Wingard and defensive lineman Andrew Billings on Monday.
Gibbens signed a two-year deal, and Billings and Wingard signed one-year contracts.
Gibbens, 27, is heading into his fifth season after three years in Tennessee and one in New England. He was with Cardinals General Manager Monti Ossenfort with the Titans.
He started eight games for the Patriots last season, appearing in the other nine games, and he totaled 81 tackles, eight tackles for loss, a sack, a forced fumble and four pass breakups.
The Cardinals have Mack Wilson Sr. and Cody Simon at the position, but the release of Akeem Davis-Gaither created a need for depth.
Billings, 31, is entering his ninth season, having spent the past three seasons in Chicago. In 2025, he started 14 of 17 games played and totaled 31 tackles and a sack.
Cincinnati made him a fourth-round pick in 2016, and he has also played for the Browns and Raiders.
Wingard’s arrival in Arizona was reported last week.
