Can DeVonta Smith Carry the Eagles as WR1? The Case for Moving on From A.J. Brown

# Can DeVonta Smith Carry the Eagles as WR1? The Case for Moving on From A.J. Brown

**Slug:** devonta-smith-eagles-wr1-aj-brown-trade-march-2026

**Excerpt:** The Eagles believe DeVonta Smith hasn't reached his full potential yet. If A.J. Brown is traded, can Smith carry a Super Bowl contender as the top option? The answer might surprise you.

**Category:** analysis

**YouTube:** https://youtu.be/SxifPXBcgPM

---

The Eagles LOVE DeVonta Smith. Not "like." Not "appreciate." Love — in all caps, according to the latest reports coming out of the NFL combine. Philadelphia believes Smith hasn't reached his full potential and has another gear he can get to. That's not front office lip service. That's a tell.

When a team is publicly expressing that kind of confidence in a player while trade rumors swirl around his running mate, you connect the dots. If A.J. Brown is traded — and the noise around that possibility keeps getting louder by the week — Smith becomes the Eagles' WR1 on a team trying to win a Super Bowl. The question is whether that's enough.

YouTube videoWatch on YouTube ↗

The Case FOR Smith as WR1

Let's start with the facts. Smith set the Eagles' franchise record for rookie receiving yards before A.J. Brown even arrived in Philadelphia. He's done everything asked of him as a number two — now imagine what happens when he commands the number one target share with no one else demanding the football.

At 25, Smith is entering the prime of his career. He can do everything: run every route in the tree, win at every level of the defense, and he's been consistently productive even while sharing targets with one of the best receivers in football. The front office's confidence in his upside isn't blind faith — it's based on what they've seen behind closed doors in practice and in the trajectory of his development.

The comparison to Mike Evans at 33 is telling. If you're building for the next three to four years, you'd rather have a 25-year-old ascending into his prime than a Hall of Fame lock on the back nine of his career. That's not disrespecting Evans' incredible legacy. It's respecting the reality of roster construction.

The Case AGAINST

Here's where it gets uncomfortable. Being a great number two and being a great number one are fundamentally different jobs. When you're the top option, defensive coordinators scheme specifically against you. You see the opponent's best corners every week. You get doubled at the line, bracketed over the top, and the easy targets disappear.

And if Goedert leaves too? Now you're asking Smith to carry the entire passing game with a receiving corps that lacks a proven second option. Even for a player as talented as Smith, that's a heavy burden for a team that expects to be in Super Bowl contention.

The counter-argument is that you don't need one guy to carry everything. If you can build a more balanced passing attack with three competent receivers instead of two dominant ones, you might actually have a better end result. Defenses can't key on one player. The ball moves around. The offense becomes harder to stop.

The Draft Class Changes Everything

The good news: the 2026 draft class is absolutely loaded at wide receiver. There are 17 receivers in the top 100 prospects — from Omar Cooper Jr. out of Indiana to Kevin Coleman from Missouri. You're not replacing A.J. Brown with a rookie, but you can absolutely find a competent complement to Smith in the first two rounds.

The Eagles have been tremendous at evaluating wide receivers since the 2021 draft class. If you can't find a contributor in the first two rounds of a class this deep, you're doing a bad job. And the Eagles don't do a bad job in the draft anymore.

The Bottom Line

If A.J. Brown is traded, the framing matters. It's not "the Eagles lost their best receiver." It's addition by subtraction — the definition of it. You're moving on because the off-the-field situation is impacting the team, and you're betting that a healthier locker room with three solid receivers and a featured running game beats two elite wideouts with drama attached.

Is DeVonta Smith ready to be WR1? The Eagles believe he is. The combine reports confirm it. And when you look at what Smith has done while sharing the spotlight — imagine what happens when the spotlight is his.