The Eagles are 10-0 when A.J. Brown plays. They were 1-2 earlier this season with the receiver sidelined with a pulled hamstring. Frustrated that Philadelphia isn’t throwing in his direction, Brown may have hamstrung Philadelphia’s run at the No. 1 seed in the NFC playoffs with his postgame comments.
After all, there are two types of drama within an NFL team’s facility, private drama kept internal and private drama debated in the court of public opinion. With the Eagles firmly dealing with the latter, teammate Brandon Graham attempted to walk back comments he made after exposing the apparent rift between Brown and quarterback Jalen Hurts.
Former NFL head coach Eric Mangini said Tuesday afternoon that he views Graham’s initial view of the situation as transparently stating the obvious.
“I don’t see it as being exposed,” Mangini said Tuesday on FS1’s First Things First. “He just said the exact truth. I think that those guys can pray together, those guys can eat together, and I think No. 1 (Hurts) is absolutely trying and No. 11 (Brown) can respond way better to criticism and way better to disappointment than he has – and worry more about his own house as opposed to Jalen’s house. All those things can be true simultaneously and I don’t think Brandon was looking at this like, ‘I’m exposing something.’ He’s looking at it like one dude’s working really hard and the other dude is frustrated that he’s not getting the ball enough, but he’s got something he can fix, too.”
Hurts is the godfather to Brown’s daughter, so any frustration the receiver feels toward his quarterback is likely temporary. Head coach Nick Sirianni said Tuesday morning on WIP radio he chalked up Brown’s comments to simple frustration over the need to play better.
“I took it as, we want to get better as a passing attack,” Sirianni said. “A.J.’s part of the passing attack.
“We all want to be better at it. Jalen wants to be better at it. A.J. wants to be better at it. And Jalen and A.J. are both really outstanding people and both really outstanding players, and I love that our players are wanting to get better and desire to get better.”
The Eagles are the NFL’s second-hottest team, riding a nine-game winning streak. Don’t be surprised if the Eagles target Brown early and often Sunday in a Pennsylvania showdown against the Steelers (10-3) at Lincoln Financial Field (4:25 p.m. ET, FOX).
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