It’s not often that teammates start to turn on another, and it’s even more rare to see them do so while also being the defending champions. Nevertheless, that’s exactly what the Philadelphia Eagles have seemingly had to contend with since their historic victory at Super Bowl LIX.
Advertisement
According to recent reports, everyone within the fan base to the locker room itself has had an issue with the dwindling rate of play that Jalen Hurts has provided since winning the Super Bowl MVP. It’s now gotten to the point where the team’s WR1, A.J. Brown, no longer wishes to remain with the team, and the Eagles are doing their best to make that happen by fielding trade offers.
During a recent appearance on the Ryen Russillo Show, the Athletic’s Diana Russini took things even further by claiming that “A player on the Eagles asked me, after the they lost to San Francisco, ‘Do you think that we’ll move on from A.J. or Jalen?'” Seeing as that question would have come directly after the team’s season had ended, it does seem to suggest that things had already reached an unsustainable point well before the playoffs.
According to Russini, “The fact that that was even like, a thought, that maybe that’s what they need to do,” was pretty telling. “You don’t move on from the quarterback,” she added.
Trade rumors involving Brown and the New England Patriots have steadily ramped up throughout the past several weeks, potentially indicating that a deal is closer to being struck than not. Whoever ends up with the star wide receiver will certainly be thrilled with their general manager, but the real question resides in what exactly is Philadelphia planning to do about replacing someone of Brown’s caliber.
In his lone season without Brown, which occurred back in 2021, Hurts finished 26th overall in touchdown passes. His 3,144 passing yards, which ranked 21st that year, stands as the second lowest total of his career, and his 87.2 passer rating from that same season ranked 22nd overall.
Suffice to say, Hurts, who is already producing some more-than-questionable passing metrics, is seemingly at his best when Brown is available. Should the two part ways, then things only figure to get worse for Philadelphia.
The 2025 regular season saw the Eagles finish 19th overall in terms of offensive points scored. It’s the first time that the team has finished outside of the top-1o in that metric since 2021, which was, again, Hurts’ only season without Brown.
So unless Philadelphia is able to mend some relationships from behind the scenes, then they may just be looking at a return to those 9-win seasons that plagued them throughout the late 2010s and early 2020s. Unfortunately for them, if there’s any truth at all to Russini’s statement, then they have already passed the point of no return on this one.
