A.J. Brown has never gone quite this far. The star receiver knows how to drop cryptic comments, but now it seems he’s openly disparaging the Philadelphia Eagles. That’s something he’s never done quite like this — and it’s a situation the Eagles would be smart to address.
Chatting on a Twitch stream with gamer JankyRondo on Tuesday night, Brown spoke about his discontent while JankyRondo used the Eagles (and Brown) in a game of Madden.
“Everything good?” JankyRondo asked.
“No. Where have you been?” Brown said, laughing. “Family’s good. Everything else? No.”
“Everything’s going to click,” JankyRondo said.
“A s— show,” Brown replied.
A.J. Brown has had three games with fewer than 15 receiving yards this season, and he’s not happy about it. (Photo by Kevin Sabitus/Getty Images)
If there was any ambiguity about what the s— show was, Brown made it pretty clear with additional context. He later added, “If you got me on fantasy, get rid of me.” When the gamer showed the stats he’d racked up with Brown in the Madden game, Brown responded: “This [is] the only highlights of damn football I’m living right now.”
During a radio hit on Wednesday, coach Nick Sirianni fielded a question about Brown’s comments.
“There’s obviously an ability to debate what he meant or what he said,” Sirianni said on 94WIP. “You go with your interactions with guys on a daily basis, and not what people are speculating. … We are in tune to what’s going on here, and the relationships that we have in here, and the process that we have in here. And A.J. is all-in.”
Brown had just two catches for 13 yards against the Packers in Week 10, another example of his up-and-down season. He had 10 targets against the Rams in Week 3 when he had six catches for 109 yards and a touchdown. Brown even turned six targets into four catches, 121 yards and two touchdowns against the Minnesota Vikings in Week 7. But he now has six games with five catches or fewer.
It would be easy to say: You can’t argue with the results! The Eagles are 7-2, sitting comfortably atop the NFC East and No. 1 in the NFC.
But …
There’s always a “but” with the Eagles’ offense.
Brown’s frustrations are louder than they’ve ever been because the Eagles’ offense is uglier than it has ever been. You only need to look as far as the counting stats. Saquon Barkley, who averaged 5.8 yards per carry last year, is averaging 3.9. Jalen Hurts, who averaged 8.0 yards per attempt last year, is averaging 7.7. For Brown, he has a career-low in yards per target (7.6) and yards per game (51). His receptions per game (3.9) are the second lowest in his career.
So here’s the next layer of how this year has been a statistical outlier for Brown.
Over the past 20 games, the Eagles are 11-0 when Brown has eight or more targets. And they’re 7-3 when he has fewer than eight targets. Now, that might seem like a champagne problem, because most teams would happily accept a 7-3 record. But of course, when the playoffs roll around, the Eagles can’t afford to lose a single game. They’re perfect when getting him the ball at a high clip. Why mess with that?
Well, the answer is that the Eagles are trying to get him the ball.
In a combative exchange with reporters, Sirianni spoke about the complications of trying to feed Brown. To Sirianni’s credit, the Eagles targeted Brown twice on the opening drive in their win over the Packers. That was likely when they used their scripted plays. But why was he not targeted between the first drive and Philadelphia’s final play of the game: an incompletion on fourth-and-6?
Sirianni pointed to DeVonta Smith’s touchdown as an example of a play they called for Brown, but he wasn’t open.
“That play is going to A.J. They took it away. And [Smith] took it over the top,” Sirianni told reporters. “You can’t look at stats and just say, ‘This is what happened.’ You can’t paint the picture that way.”
The Eagles can’t force the ball to Brown eight times per game and expect to win. That’s not how offenses work. But Sirianni can also help design plays to get Brown the ball to improve the receiver’s morale — and the team’s chances of winning.
It’s a dangerous game because feeding a WR1 can derail an offense. But it’s a game the Eagles should play more often. Sirianni also called Brown “one of the best receivers in the league.” Which brings up a counterpoint: WR1s will always get open, no matter the situation, the coverage or the defensive game plan. That’s what makes them the best in the league. So why isn’t Brown doing that? And/or why isn’t Hurts targeting Brown when he’s open?
That’s the issue the Eagles will need to rectify. Given that they’re seemingly invincible when he gets the ball and seemingly fallible when he doesn’t, their hopes of repeating as Super Bowl champs may just depend on reigniting consistent production from Brown, particularly during their playoff run. Because if Brown starts to go off, then so will Barkley (and others).
But circling back to Sirianni’s point about stat-watching and the incomplete picture in the box score, his comments remind me of the points that the Bills‘ coaching staff made when Stefon Diggs wasn’t getting the ball. The star receiver complained on the sideline (and generally caused drama both in the media and in the locker room).
There are strong similarities between Diggs (back when he was in Buffalo) and Brown’s roles in their respective offenses, their personalities and their ages. The Eagles need to hope that’s where the comparisons stop. Because after making similar comments about Diggs being one of the best in the league, the Bills lost in the playoffs and traded him. If history repeats itself, the Eagles will have multiple disappointments on the horizon. And so, too, will Brown.
As Brown’s criticisms get more direct, the Eagles need to jump into action. Because they need him. And if they don’t use him, they’ll lose him.
Before joining FOX Sports as an NFL reporter and columnist, Henry McKenna spent seven years covering the Patriots for USA TODAY Sports Media Group and Boston Globe Media. Follow him on Twitter at @henrycmckenna.
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