Thanks for procrastinating from doing your work and reading about the Burds. Check out our recap post from Eagles-Bucs and stay tuned for a special Friday piece focused on the Phillies with our Baseball Correspondent, AKA my homie Keenan.
Football is a game of tradition. And nothing speaks to the legacy of the game more than the age-old pastime of wide receivers expressing their frustration through passive-aggressive social media posts. It’s up there next to “unfollowing the team on Instagram” in the wide receiver canon.
A.J. Brown carried the torch of his forebearers by sharing this tweet after Sunday’s dramatic win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (a win in which the Eagles didn’t complete a pass in the second half):
First of all, this has to be a record for most consecutive wins during which a wide receiver posts a cryptic tweet. Add it to the record books! Second, I think more of us should lean into cryptic messaging when we’re frustrated at work. Next time a project doesn’t get out on time, I’m going to take a PTO day and set my out of office message to “Let your plans be dark and impenetrable as night, and when you move, fall like a thunderbolt.” - Sun Tzu
So far this season, the Birds’ offensive performance has fluctuated from red-hot to Rita’s Water Ice cold, and A.J.’s frustration with his dip in opportunities has been apparent. But despite those inconsistencies, the team can’t stop winning. So if the team continues to win, why is A.J. frustrated?
A.J.’s Rough Start to the Season
At the peak of his powers, Brown looks like the most dominant receiver in the NFL. He’s physically imposing in a league of athletic marvels. He’s intelligent and versatile. Just hear how Eagles’ All-Universe Running Back and reigning Offensive Player of the Year Saquon Barkley talks about Brown:
“He’s a freak of nature…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…He has some of the most impressive hands I’ve ever seen… he’s a heck of a player, a Hall of Fame-caliber player, and excited to have him on my team.”
A.J. is one of the rare players who can singlehandedly alter the outcome of a game. The comeback win over the Rams in Week 3 reminded us of what Brown can do for you. Getting A.J. involved in the offense usually leads to explosive plays. But four weeks into the 2025 season, his production has been at a career low.
Brown is on track for the worst season of his career statistically. Here’s how A.J. has performed in the first four weeks of each season during his tenure with the Birds:
2022: 404 yds and 1 TD on 25 receptions and 38 targets
2023: 537 yds and 3 TDs on 29 receptions and 37 targets
2024: 119 yds and 1 TD on 5 receptions and 10 targets (was injured weeks 2-4)
2025: 151 yds and 1 TD on 14 receptions and 28 targets
According to Charles McDonald of Yahoo Sports, Brown is seeing a dip in yards per target (11.1 to 5.4), yards per route run (3.04 to 1.23), and target success rate (69.1% to 50%) since last year.
What’s interesting is a lot of what we’re seeing early in the season isn’t too far off from how A.J. performed in the Eagles’ playoff run and eventual Super Bowl beatdown of the Kansas City Chiefs. In the playoffs, Brown averaged 5.75 targets, 3 receptions, 40.75 yards, and totaled 2 TDs. Brown is currently averaging 7 targets, 3.5 receptions, 37.75 yards, with 1 TD.
Despite the dip in production, the Eagles are still trying to get Brown the ball. The opportunities just might not be the best. Brown’s targets have actually gone up since Week 1’s single-target catastrophe. A.J. had 8 targets against Kansas City, 10 targets against Los Angeles, and 9 against the Bucs on Sunday. He has the largest target share on the team at 29.47% with a team-leading 28 targets (second is Devonta Smith at 20). So the issue isn’t the intention of getting Brown involved; it’s the offense itself.
Eagles’ Offensive Struggles
The Eagles’ offense has yet to pitch a complete game. I wondered a few weeks ago if Nick Sirianni and Kevin Patullo were committing to the “avoid turnovers at all costs” bit too much and being overly conservative. According to NBC Sports, the Eagles are averaging only 252 yards per game (last year they averaged 367), which makes them the first team in NFL history to go 4-0 despite averaging 4.2 yards per play or worse. The offense ranks 15th in EPA and 15th in success rate. They are almost completely average. And a team with talent like this shouldn’t be average.
This feels different from last year when the Eagles pivoted to a run-heavy attack and left an inconsistent passing game in their wake during the regular season. Last year’s offense benefited from a historically potent rushing attack that ranked #1 in the league. Even though the passing game was inconsistent, Saquon Barkley was ripping out the hearts of defenses through reverse hurdles and explosive runs. This year, the rushing attack has yet to find any traction.
Yet the Eagles keep winning, which team tells us they value over everything else. They’ve faced a tough slate of opponents with a collective record of 9-6-1. But they’ve made things unnecessarily difficult on themselves, like wearing jeans to the beach or accidentally calling your elementary school teacher “mom”. Here are a few factors that have determined the Eagles’ victories this season:
Week 1: Superstar receiver CeeDee Lamb drops four passes
Week 2: Travis Kelce, the greatest tight end/podcaster of all-time, bobbling a pass that turned into an interception
Week 3: A miraculous last-second field goal block and TD by Jordan Davis
Week 4: A literally last-minute fourth-down stop in Tampa
Because they are the most talented team in the league, they have a margin for error that most teams would dream of. It’s like Mariah Carey being half asleep while competing in a singing competition. Sure, she’s not at her best, but I still like her odds based on sheer talent alone.
So, Why is A.J. Frustrated?
All of that brings us back to Arthur Juan. This isn’t the first time during his Eagles’ tenure that he’s shared his frustrations with the offense.
In 2023, after the Eagles’ epic in-season collapse, he answered a question by saying, “I was raised if I had nothing nice to say, I’m not going to say nothing at all.” Brown would miss the next game with an injury as the Birds fell to the Bucs in the wildcard round. There was last year, after a narrow win over the “always bad” Carolina Panthers, when Brown was asked what was wrong with the offense, and he simply said, “Passing.” The next game, he went on to have 110 yards and 1 TD against the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Brown can be emotional and impulsive, like most football players. But I wouldn’t say he’s a diva. That perception of him is rooted in how we historically view talented wide receivers, rather than his actions alone. He’s a far cry from Antonio Brown jogging off the field mid-game or Odell Beckham fighting with kicking nets on the sidelines. Everything we’ve heard about A.J. is that he’s incredibly popular in the locker room and well-liked by his teammates and coaches. He’s a ridiculously hard worker and a valued leader. Just hear it from Saquon Barkley:
“He works hard, he puts a lot of effort in this, and (if he didn’t) he wouldn’t go out there and ball out. Obviously, wide receivers might have a preconceived notion of them, how people view them…but you can’t hear anyone in this locker room say anything negative about that guy.”
It’s hard to blame Philly fans for their concern. We’ve seen true diva wide receivers and how they can erode a talented team’s aspirations from the inside out. We lived through Terrell Owens doing situps in his driveway during a dispute with the team. We have a fear of star players leaving us that runs very deep.
So why is A.J. frustrated? I think a lot about the Instagram post that he shared after the Eagles won the Super Bowl earlier this year. In it, I think he gave us a glimpse of what really drives him (which a lot of fans weren’t stoked about):
“I’ve never been a champion at the highest level before but I thought my hard work would be justified by winning it all. It wasn’t. My thrill for this game comes when i dominate. It’s the Hunt that does it for me. It’s when the Db drops his head and surrender because he can’t F with me . The Intense battles. Early mornings. Late nights. Sacrifices. I love putting smiles on peoples faces, don’t get me wrong but it just wasn’t what I thought it would be. It’s the journey that I love the most.”
A.J. values winning, but he has a deep love for competing. He loves seeing his hard work pay off. He loves the feeling of commanding a game. The feeling of bending a defense to his will. Football players work so hard for the opportunity to perform their best on the field and show what they can do. When that performance is diminished by factors out of their control, they get frustrated.
I think Brown’s feelings are completely valid, even though I wish they were expressed differently. And we know that when he’s performing at his best, so is the Eagles’ offense. In this current bout of stagnation, part of the offensive evolution should involve finding diverse ways to get #11 the ball. Move him around the field, get him involved early, let A.J. and Devonta open up the rushing attack for Saquon. I believe the opportunities will come for him.
The season is still young, and as I mentioned earlier this week, Kevin Patullo and the Eagles’ offense need time to find their identity for 2025. It’ll look and feel different than last year, and the best thing they can do is embrace change. For the sake of the win column and the locker room.