The Eagles are 7–2 after their win over the Packers this week. Philadelphia’s season has been bumpy despite the winning record, though, and in particular A.J. Brown has let it be known he is not satisfied.
The All-Pro wideout has consistently voiced frustrations with the Eagles’ offense throughout the season. Brown started with cryptic tweets that would come after a quiet performance on his end and eventually evolved into full-blown public criticism of the team’s offense, as was the case on Wednesday when he said on a Twitch stream that touchdowns were the “only highlights of d— football” he’s experienced recently. His unhappiness was so apparent to the public that many openly wondered if Philly might trade the receiver before the deadline passed.
On Wednesday Brown met with reporters and gave a thorough explanation as to why he continues to express his frustration in such a public manner. In short, it’s not about Brown’s stats (which are underwhelming for a player of his caliber). Instead, it’s about the lack of success the Eagles offense has found despite the wins they’ve racked up and how Brown feels the unit isn’t holding up their end of the bargain every week.
“It’s not solely about my situation,” Brown said to media surrounding his locker. “Obviously I want to win, too. I think if we’re really focusing on winning and doing our job, we can’t just keep slapping the band-aid over the defense doing their job and getting us out of trouble. At what point are we going to pick up our slack as an offense. We’re so great, you know? That’s what I’m getting at. It’s not about I don’t care about winning and all I care about is stats. No. It’s been, week after week sometimes, we’re not contributing, we’re not doing our job on offense. You can’t just keep slapping the band-aid over that. You expect to win late in the year and you think you can go to it at the end of the year, it’s not going to f—ing happen. It’s not going to happen. It’s not going to happen Last year is what it was. Thanks for the ring. But it’s a new season. We have to adapt. We have to continue to get better, to find new ways. That’s where the frustration comes in. It’s not about winning, you guys. I want to win, yes. I want to help contribute to it as well. Do our thing on offense as well. I think that’s fair.
“I don’t care if I’m misunderstood. I’ll stand up in front of there and fall on that sword over and over again. It’s about doing what we’re supposed to be doing on offense. If we are really in this business to try and get better, we gotta do what we gotta do. And not just say, ‘Oh, it’s about wins. As long as you got the win, it’s cool.’ No. You cannot do that. Not in this league. You gotta continue to get better. We gotta do what we have to do on offense to help the defense, to help the special teams.”
Brown went on to flatly deny he believes Hurts isn’t throwing him the ball and said every play is different, so the question of why he wasn’t getting the ball when open was more for Hurts or offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo. He wrapped up by directly addressing the stream from earlier that day.
“After the [Packers] game, I said all the right answers and you guys still made a story. In that moment, where I’m just talking to my friend, having fun with my friend, I’m not apologizing for that. If you have eyes, you can see that. It’s not that I was throwing anybody under the bus. I’m literally trying to laugh through this s—. This s— is tough. But I’m trying to make fun of the situation to try to get through it. It is what it is, man.”
It’s a fascinating answer that sheds a lot of light on the Brown situation. His numbers are down, to be sure; on the year he has only 31 catches for 408 yards and three touchdowns. But he clearly views that as a reflection of how the Eagles’ offense has been executing. And he has a point there.
Philadelphia ranks 22nd in yards per game and 25th in total yards. The passing game is obviously having a tough time of things as the Eagles rank 24th in pass yards per game. But the run game, which has long been a calling card for Nick Sirianni’s squad, hasn’t been much better—they rush for 111.6 yards per game, which ranks 20th in the league. Yet Philly has racked up wins anyway.
The results have been better than fine. They’ve been great. It’s past the halfway point of the season and the Eagles are going to contend for the top seed in the NFC. As far as overarching goals go, Philadelphia is on pace to hit them. But the process, as Brown alludes to, hasn’t been nearly as good. And that will be a big problem when good teams start coming to town for playoff football.
Brown is making a statement here by going so deep into his thought process. Next week’s game against the Lions will show if Brown’s teammates will rise to the challenge.
