A Different Look: Farewell to Reggie Brown

By Chris Sherman

Reggie Brown isn’t a name anyone in Philadelphia gets excited about anymore. His departure isn’t bemoaned like a 5-year Philly veteran might get, and his trade probably drummed up even less controversy than the release of half-year Philly veteran Will Witherspoon. He ranks second all-time in catches for Eagles’ rookies only outdone by DeSean Jackson. In his time here, he produced over 2500 yards, 17 touchdowns, and 116 first downs. So why does Hank Baskett, who isn’t actually as skilled, enjoy so much more popularity than Mr. Brown?

Popularity is all about the expectations game in Philadelphia and Reggie failed us deeply in that respect. Hank Baskett (who may come back to replace Brown) was an undrafted free agent who astounded everyone while he climbed the depth chart. Reggie Brown was the third pick of the second round in 2005’s draft (35^th overall) and, though he climbed the depth chart early in his career, he sunk like a rock once it became clear that he wasn’t the Eagles’ answer at WR. The end result being that he gets traded for a mere future 6^th round pick.

I’m not going to defend his performance as being anything other than what we complain about, but if you look at his story from another angle, then he wasn’t such a disappointment after all. While Reggie Brown was indeed the third pick of the second round, usually a valuable draft pick to have, remember how the Eagles got it. Philadelphia received Brown’s pick by trading A.J. Feeley to Miami to be their starting quarterback and he, I’m sure, was a much greater disappointment. From this perspective, trading our (at the time) overrated third string quarterback (who came back a few years later anyway) for 17 TD’s and a 2011 6^th round pick isn’t such a bad deal. If you’re lamenting who else the Eagles’ could have obtained with that draft pick, then well, the three next wide receivers taken after Brown (Mark Bradley, Roscoe Parrish, and Terrence Murphy) have all produced significantly less in their careers at the wide receiver spot than Brown has, and Murphy isn’t even in the NFL anymore. I’d like to leave out, for the sake of argument, that Vincent Jackson followed Murphy in the draft at WR at pick #61, but that wouldn’t be fair. Clearly, though, being the 11^th WR taken, the Eagles’ weren’t the only team who missed his talent.

So I wish Reggie Brown good luck in Tampa Bay. I hope he’s able to be productive for that struggling team. We may all grumble about what we would have preferred he accomplish, but he wasn’t all that bad either. He was a disappointment, but we still got plenty of contributions from him.