A.J. Brown apologizes to Eagles teammates and addresses his recent silence: ‘We’re all frustrated’

A.J. Brown apologized to Eagles players in a team meeting Wednesday morning, a few hours before publicly clearing the air from his locker.

After declining to speak with the media for nearly two weeks, the Eagles wide receiver told his teammates he was sorry for putting them in a position to speak on his behalf. Brown, who has 105 catches for 1,447 yards and seven touchdowns this season, told reporters Wednesday afternoon that he was dealing with the frustration of two subpar performances from the team and avoided speaking publicly in an effort to avoid piling on negativity.

“I apologized to my teammates today,” Brown said. “Because they shouldn’t have had to answer questions on my behalf. I’m a man, I can speak for myself.”

“I felt like I was doing the right thing as a captain by not compounding the negative with the negative,” Brown added. “We were going through tough times, and I didn’t want to continue to be negative. It took me a couple days to realize my teammates are answering questions on my behalf. I can speak for myself.”

The Eagles have lost four of their last five games, with the only win coming two weeks ago against the 5-11 New York Giants. Brown did not speak after the 33-25 win on Christmas, which featured a Giants comeback and unease throughout the Eagles locker room afterward.

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Brown was visibly upset as well Sunday after the Eagles’ 35-31 loss to the Arizona Cardinals. The receiver said “there’s nothing to say” when approached by reporters after the game. He finished with just four catches for 53 yards and was sparingly targeted in the fourth quarter, most notably on a dubious stretch of plays on the Eagles’ penultimate series when the team called two quarterback runs and a screen pass facing a first-and-20 in Cardinals territory.

Brown said the sequence of plays, which drew criticism for offensive coordinator Brian Johnson, was the fault of the players rather than the coaching staff. Brown said the second-and-16 quarterback run, which resulted in a four-yard loss, was the result of a missed block rather than a poorly timed call.

“If one man goes the wrong way a half-inch, the play is over,” Brown said. “It doesn’t work, and that’s what happens. That’s what actually happened that last drive. Brian is getting crucified on the play call. That second play, if somebody goes to the left and block a certain person, it’s a 30-yard touchdown by Jalen.”

Brown said his visible frustration after that drive resulted from DeVonta Smith suffering an ankle injury on the following play as Smith blocked for Kenneth Gainwell rather than the lack of targets he was getting in the game.

“Everything that I do, if I say something, if I do anything, I’m classified as a monster,” Brown said. “Honestly it’s the opposite. You saw my frustration on the field, it wasn’t about the play call. It wasn’t about any of that. It was about my guy getting banged up. I’m going to need Smitty going forward.”

“That’s another reason why I wanted to apologize,” Brown added. “All you see is A.J. Brown is frustrated with the Eagles, A.J. this, A.J. that, but everybody in this locker room is frustrated. Why are you singling me out because I’m frustrated? Just because I’m shaking my head, showing emotion? You can look at everybody in the stadium has bad body language. They’re frustrated. I wanted to clear that up, because it’s not about me. We’re all frustrated.”

Brown also addressed the notion that he’s upset with Eagles coach Nick Sirianni, saying the two have a “great relationship.”

Brown pointed to Sirianni’s loyalty and willingness to take criticism on behalf of his players, revealing that the late-game interception against the Seattle Seahawks — which Sirianni claimed was in an effort to get a pass-interference call — actually involved Jalen Hurts and Brown “improvising.”

“There may be things that Nick probably wants to fix about himself, but one thing I can respect is loyalty is not one of them,” Brown said. “He takes up for us when it has nothing to do with him. He gets the blame, but that comes with his job. ... Like I said today, the coaches played zero snaps this year. It is not the coaches, it’s us.”

“That was on us,” Brown said about the play against the Seahawks. “We messed that up. We improvised and we went on our own and Nick came out and said he wanted to go and get a flag or something crazy like that. He really made himself look like a fool for us. I have nothing but respect for him, because not all coaches do that. We’re ridin’ with Nick, we’re ridin’ with Brian [Johnson, offensive coordinator]. We’ve just got to come out and play ball.”

Several Eagles players said they didn’t feel Brown’s apology was entirely necessary, but it went over well. Aside from the apology, the 26-year-old was trying to galvanize the team going into the first day of preparation for the regular-season finale against the Giants.

“It was just a message about I’m behind all of you and behind all the coaches basically,” Eagles receiver Britain Covey said. “Let’s go, basically. He just said it with his A.J. passion.”

Hurts added, “He’s taking leadership and ownership for some of the things that have been out there, him doing. I appreciated him doing that and having the courage to do that in front of the team.”

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Brown said he doesn’t talk to Johnson about targets during games, joking that fellow receiver Smith is more vocal about wanting his number called than him. Still, Brown conceded he’ll always want more targets than he gets in a game.

Veteran receiver Julio Jones, one of the best wideouts of his era and a mentor for Brown, said he has had conversations with Brown about handling frustration as a No. 1 receiver trying to help a struggling team.

“At the end of the day, you’re going to have stats, you’re going to have everything, it’s all about being a great teammate and putting the team first,” Jones told the Inquirer. “Just having the mentality. And he gets it. He’s a young player, he’s a phenomenal player, but he definitely gets it. And there are steps. It can take him a longer time to get there — I’ve played 13 years in the league. He has all the ability, the mindset, the mentality, and he’s a good person. Everyone looks at us, even myself, people only know me as a football player. But he’s going to do whatever it takes to win.”