A.J Brown’s maiden season in Philadelphia was a hugely successful one. The presence of the former Tennessee Titan not only spurred the Eagles to a Super Bowl berth, but he put up a career-high in receiving yards despite sharing targets with a 1B receiver in DeVonta Smith. What was perhaps lost during the excitement of Brown’s dominant season was just how impactful he was in the shorter area of the field.
A.J Brown was a Slot God in 2022
According to Pro Football Focus, Brown was targeted 34 times on slant routes last year, 10 more than any other NFL wideout. He caught 26 of those passes for a combined 386 yards. 19 of them went for first downs, and he averaged 7.72 yards per route ran.
As an isolated stat, this is impressive. What makes it truly exceptional is that Brown also grades out as the league’s 2nd most efficient receiver when running ‘go’ routes. This is no coincidence.
A.J Brown is a human cheat code. He stands at 6’1, 226 lbs, and is an absolute menace at the catch-point. He also just so happens to have a real suddenness in his breaks and enough speed to challenge any NFL DB vertically. A slant is basically the first few steps of a go-route with a cut inside. Brown consistently forces corners to open their hips early before flipping his own and bursting inside with acres of separation, providing an easy 10+ yard gain for best friend Jalen Hurts.
How the Eagles broke the NFL
The beauty of having a receiver who can basically win no matter what the corner does is that it opens things up on the other side of the field. If Brown is winning underneath, there’s a strong chance DeVonta Smith is in an isolated matchup as the safety sneaks down to try and help. If Brown does go vertically, it’s going to give a cushion of space to the likes of Dallas Goedert, Quez Watkins, or even a running back to wreak havoc over the middle.
It would be easy to see why Jalen Hurts was beyond dominant when targeting between 10-20 yards over the middle of the field, as well as dropping dimes over the top of defenders into the trusty arms of two truly electric receivers.
(Image from NFL Next Gen Stats)
The progress that Jalen Hurts made as a quarterback last year was genuinely remarkable. Having A.J Brown and DeVonta Smith able to consistently create an open look also helped the Eagles quarterback feel comfortable progressing through his reads, safe in the knowledge that there will be an open opportunity regardless of what the play is.
We can expand on this further when looking at RPO’s. If Jalen Hurts is going to fake a handoff to a running back, the linebackers are often frozen on the spot or closing to the line of scrimmage in a bid to either play the run or contain one of the most electrifying runners in the game.
According to Opta Analyst, the Eagles called a passing play on 56.7% of the time (23rd in the NFL) but ranked 4th in rushing plays. Hurts also had over 100 designed runs that season and as we know, was just mesmerizing when bursting out of the pocket. The punishment for a defense that didn’t respect the run with such a ruthless offensive line was deviating, only adding more value to the art of deception. It should come as no surprise then that the Eagles ranked 1st in RPO rate in the entire league.
What space does that create?
A little pocket of space behind the linebackers and between the safeties – around 10-20 yards down the field.
While this is going on, we take a simple A.J Brown sluggo route (best of both worlds) and a DeVonta Smith post to pull the safety away, and you’re almost bound to find a window in this star-studded offense.
What’s the point in this article? I don’t know. I wanted to just praise A.J Brown for his Michael Thomas-level dominance out of the slot, but I felt like I couldn’t do that without giving praise to the other cogs in the wheel. Upon even a slightly deeper look, you just realize how dangerous this offense really is. Even with a tougher schedule ahead, you can’t help but feel excited to see this group tear through defenses for fun all over again.
AP Photo/Matt Rourke
