Watching A.J. Brown in an interview, you might not know the Eagles are 11-2 and on a nine-game winning streak. The Eagles escaped a bad Panthers team with a narrow victory last week, though. And Brown knows he wasn’t as involved as he should have been—but so does his offensive coordinator.
After the Panthers game, Brown said that the Eagles had to work on their passing game. He gave terse, brief answers that led to speculation about a deeper issue, including his relationship with QB Jalen Hurts. So of course the Eagles had to spend time this week addressing all of that. What makes it all the more remarkable is the fact that they haven’t lost since September 29, yet there’s drama.
“I think they work each and every day together, and it speaks to just how much work these guys put into this thing, Eagles OC Kellen Moore said of the relationship between A.J. Brown and Jalen Hurts, via the team’s website. “Ultimately, everybody’s competitive. Everyone wants to help the team in every possible way. For players, it’s usually about their ability to perform”.
The Eagles only attempted 21 passes against the Panthers, but did not have a high volume of plays overall. Hurts did rush eight times. Of Hurts’ 21 pass attempts, Brown only saw four of them, catching all four for 43 yards. All of his targets were contained to two drives, including the Eagles’ last full possession, failing to produce points or run out the clock while nursing a six-point lead.
“I’m gonna focus more on trying to find different ways to increase the likelihood of the ball going to [A.J. Brown], the Eagles’ OC acknowledged. “Obviously, the quarterback has to play based off the reaction of the defense and trust that there’s progressions in a play”.
A perennial Pro Bowler, A.J. Brown has 48 catches for 836 yards and four touchdowns. He has missed three games, so that hurts his numbers. But after averaging over 150 targets in his first two seasons with the Eagles, he will be lucky to hit 100 in 2024.
Moore denied that the Eagles’ focus on the run game this year was negatively impacting their opportunities to find Brown in the passing game. Hurts is seeing a career-low in attempts per game this year since entering the starting lineup, however. And ultimately, Moore understands it’s his job to put his players in position to make plays. On top of that, he knows Brown is one of his principal playmakers.
“We’re always going back to evaluate, ‘How can we get it to [Brown] sooner and create those opportunities?’”, the Eagles OC insisted. “How can we improve our opportunities there? … Something for us to improve on”.
Hopefully, the Eagles find a very disgruntled A.J. Brown in the locker room on Sunday evening, though. If they do, it should mean that the Steelers got the better of him, and likely won the game. And that’s the part we care about, after all.
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