The potential trade that anyone who follows the NFL has heard about for months: AJ Brown to the New England Patriots. Almost every angle of this potential trade has been discussed already except for the cap implications for New England.

Why the June 1st date matters

After 4:01 PM EST the Eagles can spread Brown’s dead cap hit over two seasons instead of having the entire amount hit their 2026 cap. That reduces their immediate cap penalty and makes a trade far more feasible from their side.

Patriots’ cap position entering June

By restructuring Mike Onwenu’s contract on Friday, May 29th, the Patriots freed up $7.5 million in cap. This raises the Pats cap space to $43.05 million (5th most in the league as of 5/31). This positions New England to potentially make a splash and improve their roster. It appears that splash will be AJ Brown.

What adding AJ Brown would cost in 2026

Adding Brown (with no players going back to Philadelphia) would cost the Patriots $6.79 million in 2026 cap space, with increasing cap hits over the remaining years of his contract. Focusing on 2026, the Patriots would be left with $36.26 million in cap space after adding Brown.

This move would bring the Patriots’ total 2026 expected WR room cap hit to $29.79 million, which is fairly cheap for an upgraded group over last year. It would also rank 24th in the NFL in WR spending.

What can the Patriots do with the remaining $36.26M?

First, they must sign their 2026 draft class, which will cost roughly $12.5 million against the cap (Top 51 net estimated impact). This would leave New England with roughly $23.76 million in cap space.

With that space, the Patriots could pursue a veteran free agent addition. Players like Stefon Diggs and Joey Bosa come to mind as possible additions on a one year deal in the $7.5 to $10 million range. With the right contract structure or even restructures of current player contracts New England could potentially add two of these type of players.

The team could also (and likely will) work on a Christian Gonzalez extension first though, which will likely exceed $30 million APY (average per year). This extension can be structured to be a back loaded contract, either through standard salary cap backloading or an increased signing bonus. Using a conservative estimate of an additional $6 million 2026 cap hit for Gonzalez, the Patriots would still have roughly $17.76 million remaining.

This would be enough to add one or two of those veteran options mentioned earlier.

Future cap implications of adding AJ Brown

A team trading for Brown would inherit the following cap hits:

2027: $19.05 M
2028: $29.36 M
2029: $28.32 M

These numbers matter because extensions for Gonzalez and eventually Drake Maye will not be cheap. That said, if the NFL salary cap continues to rise as projected, Brown’s future cap hits will look increasingly manageable. Restructures and cap causality cuts in future years will also help make these expected big extensions possible.

TLDR (Too Long Didn’t Read)

The Pats have the cap space to absorb AJ Brown’s 2026 hit with ease, leaving more than $36 million available even after the trade.

After signing their draft class and hopefully extending Christian Gonzalez. New England would still have cap flexibility in 2026 to add another veteran contributor or two.

While Brown’s future cap hits rise, the expected increase of the league cap will help keep his cap hits manageable and shouldn’t prevent upcoming big extensions like Christian Gonzalez in 2026 and Drake Maye in 2027.

Note: All cap numbers came from Over The Cap and Sportrac. All takes, and calculations were done by me.