Eagles ready for A.J. Brown to change dynamic of offense

On draft night, after the Eagles traded for A.J. Brown, general manager Howie Roseman told a story.

When the Eagles realized they had a chance to pry Brown away from the Titans, Roseman, head coach Nick Sirianni and some other members of the team brass sat down at the NovaCare Complex to watch game tape of the talented young receiver.

They didn’t make it through the first game.

Sirianni had already seen enough.

“I'm good, I'm good,” Sirianni said as he stood up. “You guys need anything? I'm going to go get something to eat.”

Sirianni already knew that Brown was very talented. That’s become apparent from afar during Brown’s first three seasons in the league. He’s already one of the best receivers in the NFL and Sirianni knew he’d be happy to have him in his offense. Happy to have him change the dynamic of that offense.

Now it’s Sirianni’s job to make it all work.

We’ll get to see that process in real time this week as the Eagles begin training camp ahead of a season with raised expectations.

“Shoot, the secret to good coaching is get good players,” Sirianni said in June. “[Brown is] very athletically gifted as we all know and as we all see. So looking forward to adding him into the offense.”

Last year, there wasn’t much deception in the Eagles’ passing game. After the trade of Zach Ertz in October, the Eagles went into every game with a different variation of the same strategy: Get the ball to DeVonta Smith and Dallas Goedert.

This year, the Eagles’ passing plan will be based around getting the ball to all three. And as good as Smith and Goedert are, it has to start with Brown.

Without Brown last year, the Eagles’ finished as the NFL’s 25th-ranked passing offense, averaging just a shade over 200 passing yards per game. The Eagles had the worst passing offense of any playoff team in 2021 as they leaned on their rushing attack out of necessity.

But Brown is supposed to change all that.

Think about it. Most folks expect the Eagles to have a more dynamic passing attack in 2022, but what’s really changed? Sure, the Eagles added Zach Pascal, but he figures in just as a nice role player. Aside from him, the running backs are the same, the line is similar and Jalen Hurts is still the quarterback, although many expect him to improve.

The only real change to the starting lineup is the addition of Brown.

So it’ll be up to Sirianni, Hurts and offensive coordinator Shane Steichen to create a more dynamic offense that feeds the three main mouths. As far as problems go, this is a pretty good one to have.

“I think with anything you go into game plans you have three really good players that you have to get the ball to,” Steichen said this spring. “Every game is going to be different. I always say this, there's one football, and you have three really good players along with other additions that we have, so we're working through that every single day, and that'll take place through training camp and going into the season.”

If everything works like it’s supposed to, those three top targets should give their fantasy football owners headaches. Because, as Steichen said, the plan is for every game to be different. The Eagles want to exploit matchups from week to week.

That means that any of those three — or even Quez Watkins or Pascal — could have a big performance on any given week. The less predictable, the better.

Plenty of folks thought the Eagles might use one of their first-round picks on a receiver, but instead they traded away No. 18 to the Titans to land Brown and give him a $100 million contract. Because of that, there’s no learning curve with a rookie.

The Eagles plan to plug-and-play a Pro Bowl receiver into their offense.

“There's no projection there,” Sirianni said. “It's like, ‘Well, this is what he's going to be in the NFL.’ No, you've seen it. You've seen it for three years now. And it's just exciting to put on his tape and watch him.

“So can't tell you how excited we are to be able to work with him on that offensive staff and have him on this football team, and he can help us become a better football team.”

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