The Philadelphia Eagles' 2025 season debut went as good as fans could have hoped. While it was ugly at times and it was a lot closer than expected, the defending champions were able to dispatch their division rivals Dallas Cowboys. However, one player had a rough start to the year: wide receiver AJ Brown.
Coming into the season, there was no doubt that Brown was the number one wide receiver of the Eagles. However, Brown was almost invisible during their 24-20 win. The Eagles' WR1 was only targeted once for an eight-yard gain late in the game. It was an uncharacteristic showing for the wide receiver. The lack of targets for Brown drew a lot of attention after the game.
Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni talked about this performance. Sirianni said that the Cowboys did a great job covering Brown. In turn, the coach also said that Hurts was excellent in reading out the play and taking what the defense was giving him instead of forcing the ball to Brown.
“They did a good job of matching some of our routes,” Sirianni said, per Eliot Shor-Parks. “They did a good job of matching some things with taking away A.J. We had some different things to him that Jalen (Hurts) had to get through some progressions, and I think Jalen did a really nice job of getting through his progressions.”
“When we talk about our roles, I tell those guys there's going to be games like this. This is gonna happen, but to be what we want to be, you know, A.J. is obviously gonna have to be involved more in the offense, but some games go this way.”
With the Eagles running a run-heavy offense with Saquon Barkley and Jalen Hurts, Brown was always bound to get fewer touches than your average WR1. Still, it is a bit concerning for the big-bodied WR1 to get only one target in a game. Even Devonta Smith got only three catches, with tight end Dallas Goedert (7) and Barkley (4) getting more catches than the wide receivers.
It's only the first game of the season, so it's too early to react negatively. The Eagles won, too, so there's not a lot of harm done. If this trend keeps up, though, that might become a problem for the team moving forward.
