Eagles Lacked Explosion Without A.J. Brown, May Be Without Him For A Few More Weeks

The Eagles had only play over 20 yards in their 22-21 loss to the Falcons, and now their top weapon said he wll miss a couple more weeks.

Eagles WR A.J. Brown at open practice. / John McMullen/Eagles on SI

PHILADELPHIA – A.J. Brown told ESPN that he will miss “a couple weeks” with an injured hamstring that kept him on the Lincoln Financial Field sidelines during Monday night’s 22-21 loss to the Atlanta Falcons.

Nick Sirianni refused to confirm that after the Eagles fell to 1-1 in most heartbreaking fashion.

“We'll see, we'll see,” he said. “I don't know that, yet. You know I won't give you that information yet because I don't know. We’ll see how that goes.”

Brown added that he doesn’t consider the injury serious. He popped up for the first time on the team’s injury report on Friday and did not practice on Saturday. Sirianni said at the time he had felt tightness in the hamstring.

That had to impact the game planning since it happened so late in the week, though Sirianni didn’t use that as an excuse.

“We've been in league long enough where those things have happened,” he said. “You play enough games that that happens, and we have contingency plans. You change the game plan around. You still want to attack them a certain way, but now you're going to use different players in how you attack them.”

Sep 16, 2024; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts (1) talks with head coach Nick Sirianni during a timeout in the first quarter against the Atlanta Falcons at Lincoln Financial Field. Mandatory Credit: Bill Streicher-Imagn Images / Bill Streicher-Imagn Images

It’s a short week before the Eagles go to New Orleans to meet the undrafted Saints who have scored 40-plus points on both their wins Without the firepower that Brown is capable of delivering, the Eagles won’t be able to keep up, so their defense is going to have to play much better than it has to start the season.

Without Brown on Monday night, the Eagles only had one explosive play for 20-plus yards and that was on a scramble run from Jalen Hurts, who went for 23 yards midway through the second quarter.

“Obviously, he's one of the best receivers in the league,” said Hurts. “Of course he's definitely missed, but it doesn't change the trust that I have in everybody else to step up. I think we had, you know, guys step up in a big way.”

One of the Eagles’ step-up guys should have been Dallas Goedert. After a training camp where Goedert was targeted often, especially over the middle, the tight end had just three catches on four targets for 38 yards.

The other receivers did this:

-DeVonta Smith had 10 targets, with seven catches for just 76 yards, though he had his first touchdown of the season on a 7-yard catch.

-Jahan Dotson had one catch on one target for six yards.

-Britain Covey had a career-high six catches but for just 23 yards which is an average of 3.8 yards.

-Johnny Wilson had one target and didn’t catch it.

-Parris Campbell was elevated and played 15 snaps but Hurts never looked his way.

That’s not stepping up.

Hurts did, though. His 85 yards rushing were the most he had since collecting 82 in last December’s 20-17 loss at the Seattle Seahawks. He also completed 76 percent of his passes for 183 yards, one touchdown, and one late-game interception where he was trying to make a play down the field in the final seconds after the Eagles fell behind.

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