January 31, 2024
Bill Streicher/USA TODAY Sports
Eagles wide receiver A.J. Brown had some odd responses on the subject of trade rumors Wednesday.
The Eagles' star wide receiver duo of A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith appeared on the Wednesday morning edition of Kay Adams' "Up & Adams" show, and Brown in particular was repeatedly pressed about trade rumors.
It was a bit odd considering that there hasn't been much of an indication that Brown could be on the move over these next few months – well, maybe aside from him deactivating his Twitter/X account and scrubbing his Instagram of any football- or Eagles-related posts earlier this month.
Even odder, Brown's answers on the topic were either neutral at best or – perhaps concerningly – non-committal at worst.
"I've kinda been through this before," Brown told Adams. "I'm a vet. I'll remain quiet. If something happens, I'll be waiting by the phone. If not, I'll be right here."
"I'm just not worrying about any of that right now," Brown continued later when pushed on the subject again. "If it is, it is. If it ain't, I don't know.
"I think you just gotta be prepared. It's a business at the end of the day. I'm just trying to handle it the best way I can."
Yeah, those are curious responses.
Though Smith on the other end of the call did chime in at one point that Brown "ain't goin' nowhere."
"You just gotta be prepared... it's a business."
— Up & Adams (@UpAndAdamsShow) January 31, 2024
A.J. Brown on if he's heard anything about being traded 🔊@heykayadams pic.twitter.com/kl1DFTHiCD
It became a very front-loaded one, however. From Weeks 3-8, the 26-year old wideout went six consecutive games with at least 125 yards receiving, but coming back from the mid-November bye week, he cracked 100 yards just once – that Week 13 drubbing from San Francisco – and had only one touchdown throughout the Eagles' eight remaining regular season games.
His decline in production went hand in hand with the offense's stalling out and the team-wide implosion over the last month and change on the whole, up until a knee injury suffered during the Week 18 embarrassment against the Giants took Brown out of the picture entirely for a very short-lived Eagles playoff run.
"I think over a period of time, things just turned to rabble," Brown said. "It was like a domino effect. We tried to stop the bleeding but we just ran out of time."
And his explanation for scrubbing his aforementioned social media accounts during that brutal stretch:
"That had nothing to do with football," Brown told Adams. "That's me just trying to grow as a person. Just trying to block out any negativity that I can."
Again, odd interview, but you can see it in full for yourself below:
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