In the offseason, A.J. Brown was being drafted around the end of the second round, as the consensus ninth wide receiver off the board in PPR leagues. And for good reasons. Since joining the Philadelphia Eagles, Brown has garnered 145, 158 and 97 targets (13 games). He’s racked up over 1,000 yards in every season and scored 11, seven and seven touchdowns. This while being a part of one of the most run-heavy teams in the NFL.
Through four games, Brown has 35.1 PPR points, the 46th-most at the wide receiver position. He’s hauled in 14 of 28 targets for 151 yards and a touchdown. And those stats are buoyed by one game in which he caught six of 10 targets for 109 yards and a touchdown. In the other three contests, Brown finished with eight, 27 and eight yards. Gross.
The Eagles are dead-last in pass rate at 45.64%, but the modus operandi has remained constant over the last four seasons, and Brown was able to thrive. Last season, the Eagles were dead-last at 43.71%. In 2023, Philadelphia was 26th at 54.94%. In 2022, the Eagles were 29th at 50.26%.
What has not remained the same is the offensive coordinator. In 2022, Shane Steichen was the man. In 2023, Brian Johnson donned the headset. Last season, it was Kellen Moore’s turn. Now it’s Kevin Patullo who is guiding the offense, and the results have not been pretty.
The EPA per dropback is -0.01, the first time below 0 since Brown has been a member of the Eagles. The big change looks to be that the passing game has morphed into a dink-and-dunk operation. The yards per attempt is 6.0 yards. Over the last three seasons, that number was 7.9, 7.2 and 8.1. The completion percentage is 69.3%, well above the 67.6%, 65.5% and 65.3% marks the prior three seasons.
Brown is not a dink-and-dunk receiver. He’s a take-the-top-off-the-defense receiver. His 6′ and 226-pound frame, coupled with a 4.49 40-yard dash is a nightmare for opposing cornerbacks left on an island. After posting an aDOT of 12 last season, he’s down at 9.8 this season. In addition, the yards after catch per reception has gone from 5.3 last season to 3.1 this season.
Last season, Brown ran routes out of the slot 18% of the time. He’s only run 10.9% out of the slot this season.
Now, Patullo has been with the Eagles since 2021 as an associate head coach and pass game coordinator, so he’s been involved in the downfield prowess of the Eagles’ passing attack. It has only been four games, so maybe it’s just about getting his feet wet as the offensive coordinator. Or maybe he’s added some nuances that is taking time for the players to adjust. The numbers aren’t great but I don’t think the Eagles have morphed into the 2013 Alex Smith-led Kansas City Chiefs.
