Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver A.J. Brown opened up to reporters about his thoughts on the team during Wednesday’s media availability, shedding light on what’s been an ongoing soap opera in the Eagles locker room of late.
“It’s not just solely about my situation. I want to win, too,” Brown said. “I think if we’re really focused on winning and doing our job, we can’t just keep slapping a 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?
“That’s what I’m getting at. It’s not about, ‘I don’t care about winning, all I care about is stats.’ No. It’s been week after week sometimes we’re not doing our job on offense. You can’t keep slapping a Band-Aid over that and expect to win late in the year and think you’re going to go to that at the end of the year. It’s not going to f—ing happen.”
“Last year is what it was, thank you for the ring, but it’s a new season,” Brown said. “They adapted, we have to adapt, and we have to continue to get better and find new ways. That’s where the frustration comes in. … I want to win, yes, and help contribute as well and do our thing on offense as well. I think that’s fair.”
It’s been a down year offensively for Brown who has just 31 receptions through 8 games for 408 yards and 3 TDs on the season. It puts his streak of consecutive 1,000+ receiving yard seasons, dating back to 2022, at risk if he continues at his current pace.
Head coach Nick Sirianni continued to downplay the notion that Brown was causing a rift inside Philadelphia’s locker room, but also expressed frustrations of his own about continually having to answer questions about his star receiver.
“I’m close to being done answering these questions with this,” Sirianni said. “He’s working hard and he is a big part of this game plan [vs. Detroit] and he’ll be a big part of the game plan going forward. He’s working like crazy when he’s here, and I’m excited to have him.”
“You can only go from your interactions with everybody and the way they go about their work on a daily basis that you guys aren’t able to see. But no, it’s business as usual.”
“A.J. Brown is one of the best receivers in the NFL, so of course we’re trying to get him involved in the game every single time.”
Philadelphia has a commanding lead over the NFC East, sitting 4 games clear of second place Dallas at just over the mid-point of the season. However, there’s still plenty to play for, especially this weekend vs. Detroit who currently sit atop the NFC North standings at 6-3, and could overtake Philadelphia in the overall NFC playoff picture with a win.
Out west, Seattle and Los Angeles also boast 7-2 records, so if Philadelphia wants the path to the Super Bowl to once again roll through Lincoln Financial Field, they’ll need to keep their foot on the gas pedal down the stretch. And in all likelihood, that means keeping Brown happy and involved on the offensive side of the football.
Photo: All-Pro Reels. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.