The sky is falling in Philadelphia, with the Eagles losing four of their past five games, including Sunday's collapse at home to Arizona.
The losses wiped out a shot at the NFC's No. 1 seed and surrendered control of the NFC East title to Dallas. Philly is staring at the possibility of three road games to get back to the Super Bowl unless it beats the New York Giants on Sunday and gets help from the Washington Commanders.
Amid the struggles, A.J. Brown's production has waned. After generating an NFL-record six straight games with 125-plus receiving yards from Weeks 3-8, Brown has only had one game with 100-plus receiving yards since Week 9. The down-trending play has led Brown to eschew speaking to reporters in recent weeks as frustration builds -- although he announced on social media that he will speak Wednesday.
Head coach Nick Sirianni admitted this week that "we're all frustrated" with the club's play in recent weeks, as Philly can't get out of its own way.
In Sunday's loss, Brown finished with four catches for 53 yards, including just one catch on one target for 18 yards in the second half. Eagles offensive coordinator Brian Johnson pointed to the Eagles' lack of plays in the final two quarters as the Cardinals controlled the clock as part of the reason for Brown's lack of targets, but admitted sometimes you just need to get your playmakers the ball.
"A.J. is a great player, and we've got to force him the ball sometimes and make sure we get him going," Johnson said Tuesday, via the team's official transcript.
With Brown visibly frustrated following the losses, talk of malcontent from the star wideout has begun buzzing around Philly. But offensive lineman Jordan Mailata rejected the idea that Brown is a bad leader, noting that the wideout organized a team escape room outing to help build camaraderie amid the skid.
"A.J. has been great, he's been phenomenal. A couple days before the game ... we had a whole team, escape room thing going on where most of the guys showed just to build camaraderie," Mailata said Tuesday on WIP. "He's been great behind the scenes. That was A.J. The team helped facilitate the bookings. All this talk about A.J. not being leader...you guys don't know him like we do. He's a great leader, man"
(There's a joke in there somewhere about all the Eagle's good plays being left behind in the escape room.)
As a leader, it surely frustrates Brown that he's mostly been a bystander during the Eagles' struggles. On the pivotal drive late Sunday following a penalty, Philly's set of play calls went first-and-20 QB run, second-and-16 QB run, third-and-19 running back screen. The Eagles went conservative to ensure a field goal, which ultimately burned them, with Arizona having plenty of time to drive for the game-winning touchdown.
Johnson admitted that getting Brown more involved in the offense is key to Sunday's finale against the Giants and into the postseason.
"A.J. is a fantastic player. He demands a lot of attention defensively," Johnson said. "He's had a fantastic year to this point. I think he's still on pace to have a career year. A.J. is somebody that obviously everybody in this building has a lot of trust, a lot of respect for and we've got to do a great job of getting him the ball. I have to do a great job of getting him the ball."
Brown ranks third in the NFL with 1,447 receiving yards in 2023, trailing only Tyreek Hill and CeeDee Lamb. The Eagles wideout needs 50 more receiving yards in Week 18 to break the single-season Philly record he set last season.
