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Tim McManus, ESPN Staff Writer
PHILADELPHIA — There was a moment in A.J. Brown‘s much-discussed media session following the Eagles-Carolina Panthers game in Week 14 when it looked as if he nearly broke character.
He had just said “passing” was the issue on offense — a terse response that would later be perceived as a shot at quarterback Jalen Hurts, most notably by teammate Brandon Graham.
A reporter then asked how hard it was for a receiver to get into a rhythm when the offense was not passing the ball much.
“Incredibly tough,” Brown said with a straight face, before looking away and letting out a smile and suppressing a laugh that didn’t match the supposed seriousness of his remarks.
As the drama raged over the ensuing days and Brown’s merits as a teammate were debated by various pundits, he changed his Instagram profile photo to an image of the Joker from the movie “The Dark Knight.”
Brown didn’t expect the type of firestorm ignited by his original comments, but he did acknowledge last week that his words were intentional, designed to shift the focus to the slumping pass game so it could be fixed before it was too late. It’s part of his distinctive leadership style that has led to him being misunderstood publicly but appreciated by his peers internally over his two-plus years with the Eagles.
“I’m OK with being whatever bad guy I have to be for the city, the town, whatever the case may be,” he said, “to hold everybody accountable, be accountable, and to get better. If I’m that guy I will be that guy, gladly.”
The scrutiny from the outside helped spark what fellow receiver DeVonta Smith said were a lot of “tough” and “uncomfortable” conversations leading into last week’s game against the Pittsburgh Steelers. Brown spoke of extra meetings between players and coaches that emphasized improving details and communication in the passing game.
The results couldn’t have been more clear: After three straight weeks of being held under 180 yards through the air, Hurts went 25-of-32 for 290 yards and a pair of touchdowns in a 27-13 win over Pittsburgh, marking the Eagles’ 10th straight victory. With concerns over the aerial attack largely alleviated, Philadelphia appears set up as well as any team in the NFL to make a run at a championship.
Brown is not shy about wanting the ball, and his comments certainly seemed to help him to that end: after only four targets against the Panthers, he received a season-high 11 targets against the Steelers, leading to eight catches for 110 yards and a touchdown.
But the consensus in the locker room is that his desire to be involved is linked to his belief that it helps give his team the best chance of winning.
He has a strong argument. The Hurts-Brown connection is No. 1 in the NFL this season in yards per target (12.1), compared to an average of 7 yards when Hurts targets the rest of his playmakers, per ESPN Research. Hurts’ QBR jumps from 58 to 96 when throwing to Brown, while the first down rate goes from 33% to 59%.
The stat that shows Brown’s impact the most is that the Eagles are 10-0 with him in the lineup compared to 1-2 in the games he sat out earlier in the season because of a hamstring injury.
“A.J. is one of the best people we have on this team. Just know he deeply cares about being a great football player. I know he deeply cares about his teammates. And I get to see that on a daily basis,” coach Nick Sirianni said.
“A.J. has been phenomenal since the day he stepped foot onto this team. Man, I think the way he’s played elevates everybody. The way he plays football elevates everybody.”
Saquon Barkley recently said Brown was the best player on the team during a lighthearted interview with Graham’s daughter. When he was with the New York Giants, Barkley and quarterback Daniel Jones used to watch film of Brown and talk about his elite hands, noting how the ball “doesn’t move at all” once in Brown’s grasp.
“He’s a freak of nature,” Barkley said. “He weighs the same as me, he’s bigger than me and he can move like me. I just can’t run routes like him.
“I think he’s a great leader. That’s something that you don’t know walking into the door, me obviously being the new guy here. … Obviously wide receivers might have a preconceived notion of how people view them, but our relationship and the way he comes in here, you can’t hear no one in this locker room say anything negative about that guy.”
It’s debatable whether Brown’s displays of frustration — intentional or not — are always productive. There were several moments last season when he was animated on the sideline or let his consternation over inefficiencies in the offense lead to poor body language on the field.
As the season started going sideways toward the end of 2023, he’d sometimes show his discontent in media sessions, the way he did after the Carolina game, and sometimes he’d decline to speak altogether, under the principle of “if I have nothing nice to say I’m not going to say nothing at all.” That all helped fuel the feeling that all was not well inside the NovaCare facility walls.
In this case, it appears his tactics were the shot in the arm this offense needed as the 12-2 Eagles gear up for what they hope is a long postseason run.
“I don’t think we see him as a bad guy, we see him as a leader,” Smith said when asked about Brown’s comments on playing that role. “He has a ‘C’ on his chest for a [reason]. He has every right to hold people accountable.”
Added Brown: “We’re not in it for feelings. We’re not in it trying to hold everybody’s hand. … We’re trying to hold up a Lombardi Trophy. That’s the end goal. So who cares if [the public] wants to spin it and perceive me as a bad guy, that I’m throwing somebody under the bus, who cares? It’s about what we’re trying to do at the end.”