It may have happened on the first of June, but the day that the Philadelphia Eagles traded A.J. Brown was like Christmas for fans of the Dallas Cowboys. The long-overdue trade that sent Brown to New England gave Dallas’ hopes of winning the NFC East a big boost. After months of complaining and enough trade speculation to last a lifetime, the Eagles are finally rid of a player that rocked the division in 2025. It got to the point that the city of Philadelphia was ready to escort Brown to the airport, but that opinion isn’t shared by Eagles defensive back Cooper DeJean.

On an episode of DeJean’s new podcast “Exciting Mics” with ex-Eagles safety Reed Blankenship, the All-Pro cornerback said something that most Dallas fans will love: he’s making it clear that no matter how the court of public opinion sways on A.J. Brown, he’ll miss him.

“I mean, yeah, I wish him nothing but success over there for sure,” he said. “Yeah, he’ll be a good asset for them. And obviously, we’re gonna miss him, and what he was able to do in Philly. He was a dominant player, so you’ll get to go against him. But yeah, now we get to play against him, or joint practice. It’ll be fun to go against him and see him up there in Foxborough, different colors.”

Cooper DeJean said he will miss having A.J. Brown on the Eagles

After such an ugly breakup, you have to commend the 23-year-old for having the class to speak candidly rather than besmirch his former teammate on his way out the door. From such a young player, it’s rare to see that much professionalism, especially given the classlessness of Eagles fans. DeJean’s comments are telling in another way in that they are a major contrast from the comments of one of his Eagles teammates. Left tackle Jordan Mailata said, “thank God it’s over,” in reference to the saga, as the 29-year-old’s frustration with Jalen Hurts and Kevin Patullo was too much for their locker room to bear.

“I think this is more of a — it sounds terrible — but like, thank God it’s over. It was a slow pain of just, is he in, is he out? We didn’t really know, and that really wasn’t our focus as a team, our team, especially on offense.”