Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni on Tuesday morning disagreed with the notion that A.J. Brown was pointing the finger at Jalen Hurts with his postgame comments on Sunday.
After the 22-16 win over the Panthers, Brown expressed some frustration and when asked what the offense needed to improve, gave a one-word answer: “Passing.”
Some folks took that as a direct criticism of the quarterback but when presented with that perspective on 94WIP Tuesday morning, the Eagles’ head coach pushed back.
“I didn’t take it that way,” Sirianni said. “You can do anything and spin it anyway but I didn’t take it that way. I took it as we want to get better as a passing attack. A.J. is a part of the passing attack. And so we all want to be better at it. I want to be better at it, Jalen wants to be better at it, A.J. wants to be better at it. Jalen and A.J. are both really outstanding people and really outstanding players.
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“I love that our players are wanting to get better and desire to get better. That’s what we talk about all the time, how we get better and how we do things and be able to do some things that are special.”
Brown’s comments after the game gained more traction when veteran Brandon Graham was on the station Monday night. On The Brandon Graham Show, the longest-tenured Eagles player spoke about the relationship between Brown and Hurts and also criticized Brown for voicing his frustration publicly.
Graham went back on the radio Tuesday morning to apologize for those comments.
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But all of this has either created or put a spotlight on some unexpected drama for a first-place football team.
“Again there’s going to be speculation about what things look like because, let’s be honest, you guys don’t have all the information,” Sirianni said. “You don’t get to see it on a daily basis. All I can judge is on, this is very similar to when people were asking me about Jalen and I’s relationship or whatever it was. All I can judge things on is what I see on a daily basis. When I see Jalen and A.J. communicating about the game plan, eating lunch together every single day, praying with each other before the game.
“There’s going to be speculation and I get it, rightfully so, based on what’s happened the last couple days. But all you can do is judge what you see. I have more information. I see them every single day, I see what’s going on in the building. To me, we know there’s going to be noise and I obviously get it based on what’s happened here the last couple days. I go on my daily relationship with these guys myself, I go on the daily relationships that I see every single day because I spend 7 hours. You guys get to see 3 hours of it every week and then a little after. I get to see 7 or 8 hours of it every single day.”
Sirianni said he sees a lot of joy with this team right now and even shared that the team shows their team celebrations on Mondays after games.
So as much as the win over the Panthers was compared to the type of win the Eagles were pulling off in 2023 before the wheels came off, Sirianni disagreed.
“Based on what’s happened the last couple days we can say there’s some 2023 vibes,” he said. “I see a lot of 2022 vibes based off of how that kind of plays itself out.”
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