"Passing" - AJ Brown Has A Pretty Simple Answer On What Is Wrong With The Eagles Offense Right Now
The best football players in the world always want the ball in their hands because they think it gives their team the best opportunity to win as many games as possible.
You don't get to the level of AJ Brown without thinking that you can make something special happen every time you touch the ball. You don't get to the level of AJ Brown without thinking that if your team just threw the ball to you every single snap, you'd win every game 100-0.
So in a season where the Philadelphia Eagles have found their identity as a "run the damn ball straight down your throat" type of offense, obviously that isn't going to be ideal for a guy like AJ Brown. Has he been complaining all season? Not at all. Has he been a distraction and throwing tantrums on the sideline when he doesn't get the ball? Not at all. Maybe he'll throw his helmet every once in a while, but that hardly registers on the scale of receiver sideline meltdowns.
So no. This isn't going to be the massive deal that everyone outside of Philadelphia is hoping it will be. He's not shitting on Hurts. He's not shitting on the playcalling. This isn't going to cause some crazy fracture in the locker room. He's just pointing out a very obvious fact that it's probably not going to be easy for the Eagles to win games in the playoffs if AJ Brown and DeVonta Smith are getting a combined 10 targets all game long.
The running game has been incredible since the bye week. The moment the offensive linemen walked into Nick Sirianni's office during the bye and told him they want to run the ball more, the Eagles haven't looked back. 9 wins in a row, Saquon just broke the franchise record for single season rushing yards, and looks like he could legitimately win the MVP this year. The running game has been the best that we've ever seen in this city. But the Eagles still need to find a way to get the passing game to be as explosive as it was in 2022 if they want to win a Super Bowl. You can't rely on breaking off a 65-70 yard run every game. You need to find a way to get guys like AJ Brown and DeVonta Smith to be game breakers out there instead of just afterthoughts for the offense.
And what I'll say is that for the most part, the Eagles coaching staff have almost always done a great job of making those adjustments for the players whenever they openly call for them. So my guess is they make it a point to get AJ a ton of targets next week, he goes off for a massive day against Pittsburgh, and it starts the Eagles finding their balance being equally explosive through the air as they are on the ground.
Go Birds.