A.J. Brown is frustrated with role in Eagles offense. The numbers are even worse than he thinks

I'm not one to go on rants or get on a soapbox, but here goes. The Eagles have lost their minds. Never in my life have I seen a superstar wide receiver like A.J. Brown disrespected to this degree. I'm not talking about how the organization treats its players. I'm not talking words -- I'm talking about action. I'm talking about how a team feeds its superstar the ball. He's been invisible and not in the underdog type of way like Vince Papale. 

A.J. Brown cleared the air on Wednesday and took accountability for how his frustrations boiled over in a cryptic social media post after Sunday's game. The Eagles are fortunate he's the one who hasn't lost his mind with the way this season has played out for him. 

Eagles' Nick Sirianni responds to A.J. Brown's cryptic post: 'I question nothing about his desire to be here'

Carter Bahns

The numbers speak for themselves. A.J. Brown is tied for 66th in the NFL in receiving yards (151) with JuJu Smith-Schuster (he's cooked) and rookie Elic Ayomanor (he's on the worst offense in football). OK, that's discouraging, but not terrible. Well, just wait. 

Most of those yards (109 of 151) came in the second half of Week 3. Meaning he's been a ghost for pretty much the entire season.

He didn't even get targeted in Week 1 until the final two minutes of the game.

Five of his six catches in Week 2 came during the two-minute drill in the first half.

All six of his catches in Week 3 came in the second half. 

His only catches last week were on back-to-back plays in the second quarter. He could have taken the rest of the 59 minutes and 50 seconds off. 

He's essentially had two stretches this year where he went four quarters without a catch. Week 1 and then a span from the second half of Week 2 to the first half of Week 3. Those are two of the four longest stretches in his Eagles career without a catch.

A.J. Brown's longest stretches without a catch with Eagles

His half-by-half game log this season is a No. 1 wide receiver's nightmare. If you're reading this, Terrell Owens, look away!

A.J. Brown this season

Perhaps that brings more meaning to Brown's words on Wednesday: "If you don't get targets, and you don't see the ball for half the game -- two hours, man. It's hard to stay engaged."

The key words here: "Half the game." He's gone four halves without a catch this year, matching the total from his first three seasons with the Eagles combined, when looking at halves where he played at least one snap.

I can definitely say we've never seen a superstar wideout become invisible like this. This isn't just hyperbole. The numbers are proof. 

I looked at the 124 player seasons this era (since 2000) where a wide receiver was coming off an All-Pro season like Brown (he made second-team All-Pro in each of his first three seasons with Philadelphia). 

Brown is just the second All-Pro wide receiver in that span to have four straight games featuring a half with zero catches. 

The other was Larry Fitzgerald in 2012, when he was catching passes from third-string quarterback Ryan Lindley for all four games. 

The only other streak reaching three games in the last quarter century was Dez Bryant in 2015. He was catching passes from Matt Cassel in that stretch while Tony Romo was hurt.

Most consecutive games with a zero-catch half by All-Pro WR since 2000

So, in other words, the only star wideouts who have had droughts like Brown were catching passes from backups. 

I'm confident saying this is totally unprecedented. We don't even need to check before 2000. First off, we can't due to stat limitations. Game-by-game stats broken down by half aren't readily available. Secondly, we don't need to, because the NFL was still predominantly a rushing league in the nineties and earlier, while it has become a passing league since the turn of the century.

I gotta repeat myself to make sure I'm not crazy. Brown has played eight halves this season. So there's a fifty-fifty chance he's not going to catch a ball for an entire half.

This is a top-five wideout in the NFL for crying out loud. He has the same number of halves with zero catches as the following players COMBINED this season.

Ja'Marr Chase. Justin Jefferson. Amon-Ra St. Brown. CeeDee Lamb. Garrett Wilson. Mike Evans. Nico Collins. Puka Nacua. Tyreek Hill. Malik Nabers. Terry McLaurin. DK Metcalf. Davante Adams. 

You could argue that those are the 13 best wideouts in the NFL, not named A.J. Brown. 

The Eagles are lucky Brown isn't doing pushups in his driveway. The all-time diva wide receiver Terrell Owens never had more than four halves without a catch for an entire season in his prime (2000-08). Imagine the sideline tirades a team would be subject to if T.O. were on the receiving end of this.

We can give the Eagles a pass for last week, when they had zero completions as a team in the second half (and Brown was targeted six times after halftime); otherwise, it's inexcusable. He has three halves with zero or one target this season. That's just irresponsible HAHA. 

This has been going on for longer than just this season, too. Or did we all forget A.J. Brown reading a book on the sidelines in the playoffs last year when he was getting ghosted?

He had three catches for 24 yards in the Eagles' first two playoff games during last year's Super Bowl run. He really started to lose targets and take a backseat in the game plan as Saquon Barkley's season took over, and 2,000 yards were in sight. 

Brown has 666 receiving yards (I know, creepy) in his last 13 games, including playoffs, the fewest in a 13-game span in his entire career. 

A.J. Brown's Eagles career, including playoffs

At least the Eagles had an excuse in 2024. Barkley was running wild and the Eagles were mostly steamrolling the competition. Not so much anymore. They are winning, but it's been ugly. Barkley is averaging 3.1 yards per carry in 2025. His longest run is 16 yards. The Eagles are 30th in total offense. They have the fewest total yards per game (251.5) by a 4-0 team since the 1941 New York (football) Giants. They have the fewest yards per play (4.17) by a 4-0 team in the Super Bowl era (since 1966). 

They may be 4-0 thanks to some CeeDee Lamb drops and a few crazy blocked kicks, but they could be heading for a similar fate as the 2024 Chiefs, who had the same point differential through four games (+20) as these Eagles.

Brown identified part of the problem last week. "Me personally, I truly believe we've got so many good players on this team, and at times you can feel like we're being conservative," Brown said last week. "I don't think it should be like that. I think it should [be] let your killers do their thing and play fast and play aggressive. I'm not saying that we haven't been, but me personally, that's what I would like."

Conservative is a nice way of putting it. Between the tush push and Jalen Hurts turning into captain checkdown, the Eagles are actually bringing us back to the Stone Age, also known as the three yards and a cloud of dust era. The Eagles are dead last in 10+ yard plays this season (29).

Twenty-six quarterbacks have started every game this season. Hurts ranks last among that group in completions (10) and attempts (25) of 10+ air yards. He's also last in both categories in the first half (three completions, 11 attempts).

Hurts' heat map of first-half completions by season shows just how conservative this offense has become early in 2025.

He's airing it less and less each season, and it's bottoming out in his first season with the Eagles' new offensive coordinator (and play caller), Kevin Patullo. That's not the best way to capitalize on Brown's skillset, as one of the best deep threats in the NFL.

Jalen Hurts' average pass length

To his credit, Brown is moving forward with his head up.

"I'm very optimistic," Brown said. "Man, I trust my coaches. I trust Jalen to get this thing figured out. We're working towards it. We see it at times; it's just that the inconsistency is starting to be consistent. That's where the frustration comes in because as of last year, you would look back and see that Saquon [Barkley] was on a historic pace. We ran the ball, but we weren't passing the ball too well.

Overall, it's been an incredible three-plus years in Philadelphia for Brown and the Eagles. He's become a superstar, he helped Jalen Hurts make the superstar leap, he's racked up over 4,000 receiving yards and won a title. 

This could easily be just a four-game fluke that we forget about in a month. Or, it could be the first crack in Philadelphia's title defense as its offense struggles out of the gate, they face an insanely tough schedule and get every team's best shot as they try to repeat.

I can't wait to see how it all plays out, and I'm here for you, A.J.! Let him cook!