It’s not hyperbole to suggest that without Julio Jones, there would be no A.J. Brown.
At least not the Pro Bowl receiver version of Brown.
And that link to Brown began well before the two became teammates in Tennessee in 2021.
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“I didn’t even really like football,” Brown said this week. “I was kind of scared, to be honest. I was around 9th or 10th grade, I wasn’t really fond of football. But watching him play the position, I was like, ‘Hey, I could do that.’ He inspired me.”
Brown and Jones reunited this week when the Eagles signed the 34-year-old Jones to bolster their receiving depth. Upon his arrival in Philly, Jones said he considers Brown, 26, to be like a little brother.
While Brown helped pull some strings to get the Titans to trade for Jones in 2021, he didn’t have anything to do with Jones coming to the Eagles. But he said when he heard some whispers about the Eagles’ potentially signing Jones, he reached out to Jones to confirm it. Brown said on Friday that he knew Jones was coming to town for about a week.
On Friday, Brown reflected on how much it meant to him to be teammates with Jones the first time around.
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“It meant everything,” Brown said. “At that point in my career, I was just amazed in that time. I stated before, he’s the reason I played the receiver position. Just to play alongside him, it meant everything just to see him up close so I could see him move and learn up close and personal. I always talked to him but just seeing it with my own eyes it was a little different.”
On Friday, Brown said he considers Jones to be one of the best receivers in NFL history. When asked to give his personal top five, Brown prefaced his answer by saying he’s biased to a more recent era of football but then said: Jerry Rice, Julio Jones, Calvin Johnson, Larry Fitzgerald and Antonio Brown.
Brown was the veteran leader in the Eagles’ receiver room until the recent addition of Jones. He’s already been telling his younger teammates to soak up all the information they can from the future Hall of Famer. Brown realizes what a resource it is to have Jones in the building.
And Jones on Friday acknowledged that he sees plenty of himself in Brown.
“Yeah, absolutely,” Jones said. “He’s the total package. Just the consistency he’s showing and just building on that each and every week. Like I said, he’s like a little brother to me. Anything he needs for me, I’m here to give it to him, whatever the case may be. But he has all the tools, the ability, everything, the right mindset too.”
Vic Fangio back in town
Vic Fangio is a big Phillies fan.
“I’m hoping he's a little distracted,” Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni said this week.
Fangio, 65, is in his first year as the Dolphins’ defensive coordinator and in an alternate reality, he probably has that same job here in Philly. The timing just didn’t work out.
Last postseason, Fangio served as a consultant for Sirianni’s staff. Maybe he would have stayed on as defensive coordinator but by the time Jonathan Gannon was hired by the Cardinals, Fangio had already accepted the position in Miami. So instead, the Eagles hired Sean Desai, a noted and direct Fangio disciple.
Fangio’s role was to help the Eagles’ offense by giving a defensive perspective. So he probably learned a few things about Sirianni’s scheme right?
“We didn't give him all the secrets,” Sirianni said. “I asked him for his help. He was giving us information, and not us giving him information.
“Obviously when he was around last year during the end of the season, that was a unique opportunity to have a guy help us look at some different things the way a defensive coach’s perspective on it. Then Jonatha (Gannon) being able to bounce some things off of him and me being able to bounce some things off him as the head coach.”
There’s obviously a ton of familiarity here. Fangio knows some stuff about the Eagles’ offensive scheme and personnel. And the Eagles know plenty about Fangio and his system.
So it’s really tough to say who really has the advantage.
“He was here so he knows some of the things we like to do,” offensive coordinator Brian Johnson said. “But ultimately, it's going to be a battle on the field. We have got to do a great job of putting the players in a great position to go out there and execute what we're doing, and I'm sure he's preaching the same thing. So that familiarity in terms of being here, I think it obviously goes both ways.”
Coaching for Kelee
Last week, when the Eagles lost to the Jets in Week 6, rookie cornerback Kelee Ringo was called for kick catch interference in the third quarter when he ran into veteran Randall Cobb. The 15-yard penalty gave the Jets good field position and helped them get in position to kick an important field goal.
On Tuesday, special teams coordinator Michael Clay went into great detail about the coaching points for Ringo on that play and mentioned that Cobb baited him into the penalty.
“It’s one of the things where it's a bang-bang play but there is a way,” Clay said. “When you see a veteran returner like Randall Cobb who earlier in his career was a punt returner, and now on a shorter punt as a gunner, you're running, and it's tough. Kelee had the single, beat the single. The stack player came out, and he did a really good job of kind of undercutting the stack player and he's running so fast.
“But he has to just keep an eye on that returner. On a short punt, especially no fair catch, what that returner I think in my eyes is trying to do is bait that fair catch interference. And it's one of those things where Kelee or any other gunner, whether it's Sydney (Brown) or whether it's Josh Jobe or Eli (Ricks) or anybody out there, you see a returner run towards you at that speed, you have got to kind of slow down and allow the vice guy kind of to come back. And then you could put your hands on and run him into the returner.”
Ringo, 21, has played just one snap on defense all season but he has been a major special teams contributor. He is third on the team with 111 special teams snaps behind just Christian Elliss (117) and Patrick Johnson (113). Ringo has been a very good gunner and has a couple of special teams tackles through six games, which is tied for the team lead with Terrell Edmunds.
Kelly green in action
The Eagles will be in their alternate kelly green jerseys on Sunday night, which has brought back memories of those old teams. One of the most iconic kelly green jerseys is the No. 12 Randall Cunningham.
This week, Hurts talked a little bit about when he got a chance to exchange jerseys with Cunningham this fall.
“It was a special moment,” Hurts said. “He’s always been in our kind for the position and the way he played the game and how I play the game. Just to feel support, to be able to share some conversations with him, share some memories and moments, it’s something that will last a lifetime for me. I always get a text message from him weekly just checking in. It’s very cool to have that relationship with him.”
As far as finally getting to wear these kelly green jerseys in a game, the Eagles are excited. They had their kelly green helmets on at practice this week and they definitely clashed with the midnight green practice jerseys.
But on Sunday night, they’ll be decked out in all kelly green.
“I think they should be the normal uniform,” DeVonta Smith said. “They should be an every game thing.”
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