When Eagles coach Nick Sirianni met with reporters on Monday, the first topic was an obvious one — the Sunday tweet from receiver A.J. Brown that seemed to indicate a desire to move on from the Eagles.
Based on Brown’s quote from the Bible, it is Sirianni’s understanding that Brown still wants to be an Eagle?
“Yeah,” Sirianni said. “Obviously, A.J. is very important to this football team. I know he wants to contribute. I know he wants to contribute and do the things that he’s capable of doing. But yeah, he wants to contribute to these wins, and he’s had a couple games where he hasn’t been able to, and for different reasons of why we haven’t in these games. But I question nothing about his desire to play great football, his desire to be a good teammate, his desire to be here.”
Sirianni then was asked whether he talked to Brown about the social-media message.
“Yeah, obviously talked to him,” Sirianni said. “Somebody I talk to on a daily basis. I try to reach out to all our guys on a daily basis. I won’t get into any private conversations that we have with any players about any topic. That’s sacred relationship between the head coach and players. We’ll always keep that private, but always in constant communication with all these guys.”
Srianni then addressed his role in jumpstarting an offense that badly sputtered in the second half, with eight passing attempts and zero completions.
“I’m responsible for everything that happens on that field—offense, defense, special teams,” Sirianni said. “That’s the job of a head coach, is to be responsible for all that. As coaches, you want to put them in positions to succeed for different reasons. We were really successful in the first half, played a really good first half, and wasn’t as successful as second half. Had some negative plays, had some calls we want back, had some plays we’ll want back as players and coaches. But I think when we talk about our efficiency, we want to hit explosives, we want to be efficient, we want to protect the football. We had some plays that moved backwards, right? For different reasons. So, again was kind of some of the things that happened in the previous game that we moved backwards a little bit on first and second down, which makes it tough on third down. So again, need to be explosive, need to protect the football, and need to be efficient. There were times for different reasons, like I said, we weren’t that in that second half.”
When things aren’t clicking offensively, there’s only one way that Sirianni handles frustrations in the locker room.
“Open, honest communication, and I think it starts with the relationship that you build with the guys before anything,” Sirianni said. “But it’s always about being open and being honest, and it’s always about the relationship. So again, I know he wants to contribute to what we’re doing out there, especially when we had the second half that we had. Again, like I said, never question the teammate. Never question the effort that he plays with, and the player that he is, and the person that he is.”
All of that sounds fine, but it’s clear there’s a problem. While Sirianni may have said just enough to Brown to solve it for now, the real question is whether the offense will operate in a way that makes Brown feel something other than “not welcomed” and/or “not listened to.”
The best news for the Eagles is that they’re 4-0. To keep that going, the offense needs to perform more like it did in the second half of the Rams game and the first game of the Bucs game, and not the way it did in the first half of Week 3 and the second half of Week 4.
Up next is a visit from the Broncos followed by a trip to the Giants, a game at the Vikings, and a rematch against the Giants. An 8-0 record at the bye remains firmly within reach. It’s also important that, when the two-week break arrives as of Week 9, Brown isn’t thinking about taking a permanent break from his current team.
