The Eagles have put an end to rumors about Jalen Hurts and AJ Brown

PHILADELPHIA – The plan was pretty simple for Philadelphia Eagles quarterback AJ Brown and wide receiver AJ Brown.

Step 1: Score a touchdown.

Step 2: Dance.

“This was our moment to tell everyone to shut up,” Brown said after the Eagles won their franchise-record 10th straight game with a 27-13 victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday.

There has certainly been a lot of talk about Hurts and Brown over the past week. Not that Brown was entirely blameless in calling attention to a lackluster but mostly efficient passing attack as the Eagles raced to the top of the NFC with running back Saquon Barkley, an aggressive offensive line and a burgeoning defense.

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Brown caught eight passes for 110 yards and a touchdown, while fellow receiver DeVonta Smith had 11 catches for 109 yards and a score. Hurts, who announced after the game that he was playing with a broken finger on his non-throwing hand, finished the game 25 of 32 for 290 passing yards, his second-highest mark of the season.

When asked what the Eagles’ offense needed to improve after last week’s narrow win over the Carolina Panthers, Brown responded succinctly: “Fit.”

Brandon Graham, who missed his final season with a triceps injury, poured kerosene on the fire by discussing the perceived discord during a weekly media appearance and mentioning the long-standing relationship between Hurts and the receiver, which dates back to their time in high school -days.

“We have people who are very close to us who can have these conversations, it just makes everyone around us better,” Smith said.

Brown said he “absolutely” believes his words last Sunday helped.

“I said it for a reason,” he said. “I only had good intentions behind it. It wasn’t my job to get the ball. It was about us all being on the same page and doing our best. We know what we are capable of. I knew it wasn’t the standard.”

His teammates agreed, Brown said. What he said didn’t surprise her.

“I kind of got crucified for it, but it’s cool,” he said.

Such conversations were “very uncomfortable,” Brown said, but insisted he never confronted anyone.

“We talk about it behind closed doors,” he said. “We call each other. This is very unpleasant. Because you don’t want to feel like you’re being attacked.

“I think we are moving in the right direction. We did what we had to do in the passing game today.”

What a difference a week makes. The relief was achieved on Wednesday, but it officially came with 1:13 left in the first quarter. Hurts threw an off-balance ball to Brown that disintegrated in the middle of the end zone for the game’s first touchdown. The Eagles entered the league as the lowest-scoring team in the first quarter and left with 10 points.

“We knew it was going to be hard for them to get the ball quickly, so we did that,” Smith said of the Eagles’ quick start.

Philadelphia threw the first three plays of the game and four of the first five. Hurts, who sounded like a carpenter and gardener after the game, used one of his favorite analogies: sharpening all the tools available “so that when it’s time to use them you’re ready to go.” It was intentional, consistent with Smith and Brown to go.

“I don’t think there’s any doubt about it. I think, honestly, there’s an effort there,” Hurts said. “The approach was a little different this week. The grass will be green where you water it. We decided to water it and saw it as the fruit of our labor.

“Obviously we watered down the running game a good bit. It’s natural to put emphasis on one thing and put emphasis on another and see what you saw. We want to continue to be well-rounded, strive to be well-rounded and water all areas of our garden.”

When left tackle Jordan Mailata was asked about the latest WIP drama later in the week, he said the game against the Steelers wouldn’t be the “AJ Brown and Jalen show.” He was happy to add an addendum after the win.

“It ended up being the show with Jalen Hurts and AJ Brown and (DeVonta Smith),” he said. “That was pretty cool.”

A focus of the coaching staff and wideouts, Brown said, was over-communication — “we even overdid it,” he said — during meetings, which they also simply extended.

“When you talk about something ten times, you say to yourself, ‘Okay, I got it.’ However, it is necessary,” Brown said.

It made the receivers and Hurts more on the same page all week, Brown said, and he believes it’s something that will continue the rest of the year.

Head coach Nick Sirianni said the excitement may have been perceived as chaos from the outside. The Eagles saw this as an opportunity to move up.

“It was just something we used to fuel ourselves and get better, and they did,” the fourth-year coach said.

Hurts comes across as a determined leader who hopes his mentality can shine through in the locker room. But there are too many bodies for everyone to ignore everything. Social media is invasive. The Philadelphia media is demanding accountability on behalf of a public that demands it from its sports teams.

“The control never ends. This is nothing new,” Hurts said. “This is something that excites me. I appreciate being told that I can’t do it and that we can’t do it. I know that I lead this team and it requires a lot from him. It demands a lot from you. And I just want to show up and be the best teammate and quarterback and be the best I can be for the guys on the team.”

However, this team has not allowed anything to penetrate its walls. No offseason ESPN report suggesting that Sirianni and Hurts have been feuding since the disastrous end to the 2023 season and the wounds have not healed. Not the arrival of new coordinators on both sides of the ball for the second straight year. Not the recent alleged argument between Brown and Hurts.

Last year the noise consumed them. It appears that they are impenetrable to external narratives until now in 2024.

With tight end Dallas Goedert (knee) on injured reserve, the target shares for both Brown and Smith have understandably increased.

Barkley’s presence has also caused the Eagles’ passing game to become less important. But the league’s leading rusher was also temporarily absent due to an undisclosed injury. Hurts’ 32 pass attempts were his most since a loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Week 4.

At that point, the Eagles were 2-2 and Sirianni faced questions about his job security. He more than answered this. And once the people in the locker room stirred the pot—whether intentionally or not—they wasted no time worrying about those things, too.

“We know what the end goal is,” Brown said, adding that winning 10 games in a row means little if the goal is to win the Super Bowl.

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The Eagles have put an end to rumors about Jalen Hurts and AJ Brown

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