The Eagles Must Move On From A.J. Brown After This Season

People are tired of hearing it.

It’s a story that has never seemed to end between the reigning Super Bowl Champion Philadelphia Eagles and wide receiver A.J. Brown.

From his cryptic post on X, to the reports that he and quarterback Jalen Hurts aren’t close, to his continued outbursts.

You’d think that a team that’s 7-2 with a healthy lead over the NFC East and fresh off a Super Bowl, that things would be nice and peach right?

Wrong.

It’s clear that the Eagles offensive schemes have changed in the last year. Last season’s offensive coordinator Kellen Moore went over to New Orleans to be the head coach of the Saints, and in turn, elevated Kevin Patullo, the team’s pass game coordinator of the past four seasons as OC.

And yes, the offense looks different. Sometimes it looks peculiar, and the lack of involvement of Brown has been a widespread conversation around not just the city, but the nation.

There’s no doubt that last week’s game against the Green Bay Packers was weird. But it wasn’t just the Eagles who looked out of sync. Green Bay couldn’t seem to get out of its own way.

But at this point, Brown is starting to become a very expensive distraction.

A distraction that a team with back-to-back Super Bowl aspirations does not need.

Brown seems to be adamant that his frustrations are not solely about himself and his stats. In fact, he thinks the team is just delaying the inevitable, welcoming short term success, and worrying about the future later.

"That's what I'm getting at. It's not about, 'I don't care about winning, all I care about is stats.' No. It's been week after week sometimes we're not doing our job on offense. You can't keep slapping a Band-Aid over that and expect to win late in the year and think you're going to go to that at the end of the year. It's not going to f---ing happen."

Well, let’s look at the numbers to see if they equate to what Brown is stating.

As you can see, as far as Philadelphia’s passing attack goes, not much has changed. In fact, the last time we spoke about Brown’s usage, he was still on pace to get the same amount of targets.

The one glaring difference is the points scored per game, and that can likely be attributed to Saquon Barkley’s fall back down to Earth.

Barkley is still an elite running back but the run he was on last season where he ran for a league-leading 2,005 yards and 125 yards per game was unsustainable.

This season, he’s still a reliable back, but that yards per game number has essentially been cut in half, which is likely what has turned the Eagles from a dynamic team to a good team that grinds it out.

By no means is Philadelphia perfect. But it’s winning games, and barring a catastrophic setback, they’re going to retain the NFC East and likely secure a first round bye.

Which is why Brown’s constant outbursts offer nothing to the table besides headaches and eye rolls.

How many more times are we going to watch this dog and pony show?

If the Eagles want to continue having sustained success, they’ll move on from Brown at the end of the season. You can only shrug it off and say “oh, that A.J.!” so many times.

It's starting to be a hindrance.