Decoding A.J. Brown’s cryptic postgame messages, searching for Saquon Barkley, and what they’re saying about the Eagles

The Eagles picked up a big win in Tampa on Sunday, but they’re not free from the next-day drama after a near-collapse in the second half.

With the struggles on offense and some postgame talk on social media, there’s plenty to discuss. Here’s what former players in the media are saying after Sunday’s game …

It was another up-and-down day for the Eagles’ offense against the Buccaneers, but a poor day for A.J. Brown, who had just two catches for 7 yards. That led to a few postgame tweets from Brown. One was a message of love and a bandaged heart.

The other came from the gospel of Mark, chapter 6, verse 11, which reads, “If you’re not welcomed, not listened to, quietly withdraw. Don’t make a scene. Shrug your shoulders and be on your way.”

» READ MORE: NFL Week 4: A.J. Brown demands a trade? ‘Crazy Nick’ actually inspires Eagles? Cowboys muzzle Micah. | Marcus Hayes

Brown, who didn’t speak to reporters after Sunday’s game, has generally shied away from directly calling out Kevin Patullo or Nick Sirianni for his lack of targets, but after last week’s game against the Rams, he made it known that he wanted the Eagles to continue being more aggressive through the air.

“A.J. Brown is complaining about not getting enough balls, but at the end of the day, you’re 4-0,” former NFL offensive lineman Damien Woody said of Brown’s tweet on ESPN’s Get Up on Monday. “You’re winning football games. You will figure it out. Here’s what I would say to A.J. Brown: ‘Find ways to impact the game. Not everything needs to be about catching the ball.’”

Perhaps how you view Brown’s reaction to his slow start to the season depends on the position you played. While the offensive lineman in Woody wants to see Brown put his head down and go back to work, former wide receiver Chad “Ochocinco” Johnson has sympathy for Brown, after the Eagles failed to complete a single pass in the second half of Sunday’s game.

Brown has spoken in past weeks about working to contribute in whatever way he can despite not getting targets, but Johnson urged fans to see his frustration of not getting catches.

“Do you understand what that does to players mentally? I don’t think fans understand,” Johnson said on The Nightcap podcast. “Yes, they won the game. But players want to contribute and help to win those said games. He’s been telling us this for years now; last year he was reading his book. You’re paying me $33 million, not only am I the No. 1 wide receiver, I’m the captain of the team for a reason. Allow me to be part of the offense.”

Through four games this season, Brown has 14 catches for 151 yards and a touchdown, but the majority of that came in the second half of last week’s win over the Rams, a game Brown finished with six catches for 109 yards and a touchdown.

Much has been made of where Jalen Hurts ranks among the league’s best quarterbacks, and it changes every game. But former Cowboys receiver Michael Irvin called out the discourse after Sunday’s game on First Take, saying that Hurts’ own receivers would clearly prefer to play elsewhere.

“You guys are saying that you’d take Jalen Hurts over all these quarterbacks, like Dak Prescott,” Irvin said. “I don’t think his own receivers, I don’t think A.J. Brown would take him over Dak Prescott … Winning cures a lot of things, until you’re not winning, and then the house crumbles.”

Stephen A. Smith also thinks that Brown would be much happier on the Cowboys, playing with Dak Prescott.

“The Eagles were so dominant in the first half that Nick Sirianni and those guys called off the hounds,” Smith said. “It’s what they do. That’s one of the problems that A.J. Brown has. Of course if you’re A.J. Brown, a wide receiver, you’d rather play with Dak.”

» READ MORE: Jalen Hurts mum on the second half; A.J. Brown only tweeted. What’s going on with the Eagles’ Jekyll and Hyde offense?

Is Brown really trying to indicate that he wants to be traded? It’s unlikely the Birds move him in 2025 due to potential dead-cap penalties, but as Brown continues to be underused week-to-week and express his frustrations, the possibility that Brown’s long-term future is not in Philadelphia increases, Smith said.

“This brother is ultratalented and he’s a Super Bowl champion, and he knows they’re not using him properly,” Smith said. “ … A.J. Brown is basically letting you know, I want up out of here.”

As long as the team keeps winning, there’s little reason to be frustrated. But even after winning the Super Bowl, Brown posted that it wasn’t as satisfying as he thought it would be, and he wanted to prove he was among the league’s best.

Cam Newton said on ESPN’s First Take that players know they have a limited window to show what they’re truly capable of, but that because the team is winning, Brown hasn’t fully expressed his frustration.

“Winning has been the only cure to muzzling him,” Newton said. “When you see tweets, when you see open dialogue of saying, ‘What we should be doing here is …’ and obviously when you start to see book reading, he’s trying to say without saying, ‘I’m not happy here.’”

With the Eagles’ many struggles in the passing game, less has been said about the lack of consistency with Saquon Barkley and the running game. Through four games, Barkley has just 237 yards on 77 carries, a far cry from his incredible production in 2024, when he had 435 yards on 75 carries through the first month of the season.

Not having the run game to lean on made former Eagle Chris Long nervous throughout the second half Sunday — and going forward.

“The thing that I worry about, even when the Eagles are up three scores like this game, is that I don’t know where the run game is,” Long said. “If you’re going to try to be that team that you were last year in situations like this, at times it’s going to look really disjointed, and it looked super disjointed in the second half.”

Through the first four games last season, the Eagles recorded 615 rushing yards (153.8 per game). This year, they’ve run for just 454 yards (113.5 per game) and are averaging just 87 yards on the ground in their last two games.

» READ MORE: What happened to the Eagles running game? Saquon Barkley and his teammates are looking for answers.