Top 25 Eagles Ranked: No. 3 A.J. Brown 'Dominant' Final Piece to Super Bowl Puzzle

Philadelphia Eagles receiver A.J. Brown is one of the most dominant offensive players in football.

PHILADELPHIA - A second-team All-Pro dubbed as the best slant receiver in football and No. 2 on go routes by Pro Football Focus, the physically impressive A.J. Brown finished No. 3 on SI.com’s Eagles Today preseason ranking of the top 25 Philadelphia players.

Acquired on Day 1 of the 2022 draft for first- and third-round picks, Brown, 6-foot-1 and 226 pounds, more than lived up to his reputation as one of the best wideouts in the NFL, snaring 88 receptions for a franchise-record 1,496 yards and 11 touchdowns.

Brown surpassed the record Mike Quick held for nearly 40 years dating back to the latter’s 1,409-yard campaign in 1982.

Beyond the production, however, Brown proved to be the final piece of the puzzle for what turned out to be one of the NFL’s most explosive offenses where nine of the 11 starters earned some kind of postseason accolade and a 10th – tight end Dallas Goedert – would have had he not missed five games due to injury.

The Philadelphia offense was No. 3 overall and top five in almost every important category, including points per game (third), third-down offense (fourth), fourth-down offense (fourth), and red-zone offense (third).

Brown’s Twitter handle is @1kalwaysopen_ and that’s not false advertising. The fifth-year Ole Miss product runs in the 4.4s despite his imposing size and developed a Randy Moss-like ability to show his hands late on the deep ball. His frame also allows Brown to easily box out opposing defenders and turn 50/50 balls into 70/30 of the offense, according to Pro Bowl cornerback Darius Slay.

That rare versatility explains Brown's success on the conflicting aspects of the route tree.

Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good and It could have turned out much differently in 2022 for the Eagles, who were zeroing in on a trade for then-Atlanta receiver Calvin Ridley before he was suspended for gambling. From there, Howie Roseman turned his attention to Christian Kirk in free agency before bowing out of the bidding after Jacksonville went way above market value.

Roseman kept taking swings at getting better by trying to deal for Robert Woods, who decided Nashville and the Tennessee Titans would be the better option. The final pre-draft hope was Allen Robinson, who decided to sign with the then-Super Bowl champion Los Angeles Rams instead.

With options waning the Eagles decided not to settle at the position and instead decided to swing for the fences, giving up significant draft capital and a four-year, $100 million extension to get a disgruntled Brown, who also happens to be a very close friend with quarterback Jalen Hurts, away from the Titans.

That move and Brown's subsequent success in Philadelphia arguably cost former Titans GM Jon Robinson his job in Tennessee.

Had the Eagles snared any of its original targets it wouldn’t have steered toward Brown, who emphatically ended the organization’s long-standing receiver struggles quickly becoming the franchise’s best wideout since Terrell Owens.

More so, Brown, 25, took the pressure off second-year wideout DeVonta Smith, who took a big leap forward in his second season and has risen to No. 6 on Eagles Today's top-25 list.

Eagles Today beat writers Ed Kracz and John McMullen put together their own top 25 players independent of each other’s rankings and then assigned point values to the rankings, with 25 points awarded to the player ranked first on each list, 24 to the player ranked second, and so on, with one point going to the player that was put 25th.

The highest ranking from either reporter breaks any ties in the ballot.

Brown was No. 2 on McMullen’s list and a bit lower at No. 4 by Kracz.

So far, the rankings have shaken out this way:

No. 25 - RB Kenny Gainwell

No. 24 - LB Nicholas Morrow

No. 23 - S Reed Blankenship

No. 22 - S Terrell Edmunds

No. 21 - K Jake Elliott

No. 20 – LB Nakobe Dean

No. 19 – DT Jordan Davis

No. 18 - DT Jalen Carter

No. 17 - RB D’Andre Swift

No. 16 - DT Milton Williams

No. 15 - DT Fletcher Cox

No. 14 - CB Avonte Maddox

No. 13 - DE Brandon Graham

No. 12 - CB James Bradberry

No. 11 - LG Landon Dickerson

No. 10 - LT Jordan Mailata

No. 9 - CB Darius Slay

No. 8 - DE Josh Sweat

No. 7 - TE Dallas Goedert

No. 6 - WR DeVonta Smith

No. 5 - Edge Hasson Reddick

No. 4 - QB Jalen Hurts

No. 3 - WR A.J. Brown

Brown’s 1,496 receiving yards ranked fourth in the entire NFL behind only Minnesota’s Justin Jefferson (1,809), Miami’s Tyreek Hill (1,710), and Las Vegas’ Davante Adams (1,516), and his 17.0 yards per reception were second to the Dolphins’ Jaylen Waddle (18.1).

Brown added 13 more receptions for 146 yards in the postseason, including six catches for 96 yards and a 45-yard touchdown in Super Bowl LVII.

Moving forward Brown will again lead a receiver room with Smith serving as a tremendous No. 2 before a significant drop off to Quez Watkins and/or Olamide Zacchaeus at WR3.

---

-Want the latest in breaking news and insider information on the Philadelphia Eagles? Click Here.

-Want even more Philadelphia Eagles news? Check out the SI.com team page here

-John McMullen contributes Eagles coverage for SI.com's Eagles Today and is the NFL Insider for JAKIB Media. You can listen to John, alongside legendary sports-talk host Jody McDonald every morning from 8-10 on ‘Birds 365,” streaming live on YouTube. John is also the host of his own show "Football 24/7 and a daily contributor to ESPN South Jersey. You can reach him at jmcmullen44@gmail.com or on Twitter @JFMcMullen