After going to the Super Bowl as the NFC champions for the 2022 NFL season, the Philadelphia Eagles won 10 of their first 11 games in the 2023 campaign. But Philadelphia won only one more game, finished the regular season at 11-6 and bowed out in the first round of the playoffs with a 32-9 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Six weeks after Philadelphia’s final game, the Eagles’ plummet has remained a hot topic in the City of Brotherly Love. Just in the past week, Philly fans could read about how quarterback Jalen Hurts was overwhelmed by the pressure of a five-year, $255 million contract, when coach Nick Sirianni lost control of himself and the team and that the Eagles had been ripped apart by an “unfixable,” but also undisclosed, problem.
To those and all the other explanations offered by outsiders to explain Philadelphia’s collapse, Eagles wide receiver A.J. Brown had a response during an appearance on Friday on “The WIP Afternoon Show” on WIP-FM in Philadelphia. “I think that’s sort of BS,” Brown said. “… Why make up so many rumors? Because most of the rumors don’t even be real rumors. These are rumors that you guys are making up, and everybody runs with it. So what’s the deal?”
Among the post-mortem critiques of the Eagles was the idea that Hurts needs to be more vocal and demonstrative as Philadelphia’s quarterback. Brown was asked if he thought that was true. “Listen, Jalen is himself,” Brown said. “I don’t agree or disagree. He’s going to be himself, and I’m not the person to try to change him to be something that he’s not or whatever the case may be. When things were going really good, you didn’t hear those reports. The season pulled everybody every which a way. It was ups; it was downs. It was more downs than ups.
But it started off ups, and now everybody’s scratching, everybody’s pulling, everybody’s just trying to see what’s going on. “But when we was winning, when we was 10-1, you saw the same reaction of him on the sideline. But when we started losing, you still saw the same reaction, so how can you get upset at the same person who’s doing the same thing? A couple of months ago, he was the greatest leader for this organization, so like I said, man, listen, I don’t agree or disagree because he’s going to be himself. And I want him to be himself. I don’t want him to be nobody but himself because if he’s not, he’s not authentic.”
There’s also been speculation that good friends Brown and Hurts don’t get along as well as they once did. “I’m not going to get into me and him’s relationship on the air, but it’s total BS,” Brown said. “You know what I’m saying? It wasn’t a problem when I was on my six-game (100-yard receiving) streak. They wasn’t talking about that then. They only started talking about that when we started losing. “Of course, yeah, you see friction. You see friction from everybody – from the coaches, from the players, from everybody. So there you go.”
Brown had a couple of publicized incidents when he seemed agitated with the former Alabama quarterback on the sideline during a 34-28 victory over the Minnesota Vikings on Sept. 14 and a 21-17 victory over the Kansas City Chiefs on Nov. 20. “You see me getting upset on the sidelines, and you automatically think it’s about targets,” Brown said. “No, no. What if I’m holding my players accountable? What if I’m the guy pushes everybody in the locker room, makes people uncomfortable to try to better themselves for the team? What if I’m that guy?
You don’t see it as much from Jalen because that’s not his personality. But, honestly, I’m the person that you need on a team because I’m willing to hold people accountable, make people around me better. But nobody sees that. All you see is the little flare-ups and stuff like that. … “I’m human. I may not do it the best way every single time. But that’s who I am. That’s who I’m forever going to be until I’m 6 feet under the ground. That’s who I am. I’m not going to change who I am.”
Brown has been a Pro Bowler in both his seasons with the Eagles and has recorded 194 receptions for 2,952 yards and 18 touchdowns in the past two years. Brown said the reason for Philadelphia’s slide was straightforward and had been stated many times by players, but their explanation had not been accepted.
“Like I said during the season, after the season, whenever, players wasn’t executing,” Brown said. “That’s what it came down to. I think the media kind of ran with the coaches: It’s the coaches’ fault, the coaches didn’t prepare us for this and that. I never blame the coaches. I’m not the person to blame the coach. I’m not trying to blame anyone. I’m the guy who going to look in the mirror and going to challenge everybody else. It was the players not executing, and that’s what happened. …
“Ike (Reese) said it a few seconds ago, that we was playing like the best team in the league – we wasn’t. We might have had the best record in the league, but we wasn’t playing like the best team in the league. It was like that all year. We was scratching away getting wins, so when stuff started to really unravel and stuff started to not go as planned, then you saw what was happening. Like I said earlier, it was a domino effect, and we was trying to stop the bleeding, and everything was just going too fast at that point.”
