PHILADELPHIA — Eagles receiver A.J. Brown has a working bit together with his coach, Joey Guarascio, the place he’ll present up at Guarascio’s facility in Boca Raton, Florida, unannounced. Guarascio’s cellphone rings and Brown shall be on the opposite finish, asserting he is on the door.
In early March, Brown flew down to start his offseason coaching.
The greeting was the identical, however the vibes had been totally different. The injuries from the Eagles’ 38-35 loss in Tremendous Bowl LVII to the Kansas Metropolis Chiefs had been contemporary. Brown was distraught within the aftermath of that recreation — he declined to deal with the media that night time, and the ache in his voice, which barely rose above a whisper, was evident when he spoke at his locker again in Philly a pair days later. Little time had handed earlier than the calls for of the following season got here calling.
“You possibly can inform that it stung, as a result of he actually did not wish to discuss it,” stated Guarascio, the top power and conditioning coach at Florida Atlantic College who served in the identical position at Ole Miss when Brown performed there. “I picked the trace up like, OK, it is nonetheless a sore topic. And I do know that in his thoughts, he needed to be MVP, he needed the fairytale ending to it. I do know that was considered one of his fundamental drivers this entire offseason, to show to everybody that he could be the perfect receiver within the NFL.”
Heading into Monday night time’s Tremendous Bowl rematch towards the Chiefs (8:15 p.m. ET, ESPN/ABC), Brown’s mission is on monitor. He ranks second in receiving yards (1,005) behind solely Tyreek Hill of the Miami Dolphins (1,076) and is coming off a historic stretch through which he turned the primary participant in NFL historical past to publish 125-plus receiving yards in six consecutive video games, eclipsing a mark beforehand held by first-ballot Corridor of Famer Calvin Johnson.
The quickest Eagle to succeed in 1,000 receiving yards, Brown has thrust himself into the Offensive Participant of the Yr dialog alongside together with his shut pal and quarterback, Jalen Hurts, serving to the Eagles to an 8-1 begin.
A part of Brown’s ascension could be linked to pure development: It is his second full season in coach Nick Sirianni’s offense and dealing alongside Hurts. Now 26 and a group captain, Brown has matured in the way in which he assaults his craft. Different developments defy the standard profession arc, like how he is managed to realize velocity in Yr 5 regardless of enduring a number of lower-body accidents since coming into the league in 2019.
The objectives have all the time been lofty — the long-standing motivational chorus between Brown and Guarascio is “gold jacket or bust” — however the edge has sharpened and the pursuit has intensified since Brown walked off the State Farm Stadium subject in February with the Chiefs’ yellow and pink confetti raining down on him.
“We did not end the way in which we needed to final 12 months. Simply having that buried in your coronary heart: it wasn’t sufficient,” stated Brown, on how final season’s ending impressed his efficiency in 2023.
“It was like that triggered one thing in him,” added Eagles receiver coach Aaron Moorehead, “like, ‘We do not wish to come up one drive brief. We have to be nice. We have to be excellent.'”
BROWN LIKES TO visualize his ambitions.
Throughout his early days at Ole Miss, his locker stall was full of photos of high school receivers within the recreation he aspired to be like — gamers like Marquise Brown and Tyrie Cleveland — surrounding a picture of the Biletnikoff Trophy, given to the highest receiver within the NCAA.
There was little doubt he had the products. After modest manufacturing as an outdoor receiver his freshman 12 months, the 6-foot-1, 226-pound Brown moved into the slot as a sophomore following an damage to teammate Van Jefferson. Within the 2017 opener towards South Alabama, he erupted for eight catches for 233 yards and two touchdowns. He went on to guide the SEC in receiving yards every of the following two seasons.
“I all the time used to inform scouts and anyone that requested about him that he jogged my memory of what you used to see on movie from the Jim Brown, old style working backs,” Jacob Peeler, Brown’s receivers coach at Ole Miss, stated. “When he acquired the ball in his palms, he was simply throwing dudes off of him.”
A 66-3 blowout loss to the Hurts-led Alabama Crimson Tide three weeks later led to a shift in Brown’s mindset. He was blanketed by future first-round security Minkah Fitzpatrick and bracketed a lot of the day, ending with one catch for six yards.
Annoyed by the result, Brown was decided to enhance and desirous to turn out to be one of many high gamers in school soccer. Guarascio challenged him to intention greater.
“When he acquired again [from Tuscaloosa], he was evaluating himself to school receivers,” Guarascio stated. “And I ended him. I stated, ‘Why are you evaluating your self to individuals that you just play with? You could examine your self to individuals that you just wish to be higher than long-term, individuals which are elite, Randy Moss and Terrell Owens and Jerry Rice and all these guys.’ I stated, ‘Examine your self to guys that you just wish to be higher than, as a result of should you set your limits that low, that is the place you may find yourself.'”
The photographs in his locker of his contemporaries got here down. He changed them with photos of NFL standouts like Julio Jones — now his teammate — and Amari Cooper. Sunday nights had been typically spent within the Ole Miss huge receiver room alongside DK Metcalf watching YouTube movies of Jones and different NFL star receivers of the time.
“I ended specializing in the present guys,” Brown stated, “and began making an attempt to outwork the fellows that had been within the NFL.”
As Brown’s desires ballooned, he started capturing them down on Submit-It notes, which he positioned throughout a mirror in his room. They included profitable the Heisman Trophy, being a first-round choose within the 2019 draft, and being named All-American and All-SEC. A few of these objectives materialized (he was a two-time All-SEC honoree), some did not and others got here shut (he was a second-round choose of the Tennessee Titans). However the bar was raised. He nonetheless writes these notes.
“It is on my mirrors. It is in my lavatory. It is in my automobile. It is in all places,” Brown stated. “If I proceed to inform myself I am this and I am that, I am quickly going to imagine it.” He selected to maintain the contents of these latest notes to himself, joking that his ambitions would “in all probability scare the world.”
A kind of objectives, although, could be discovered on Guarascio’s whiteboard on the FAU coaching facility.
“He wrote within the backside nook: ‘I am the perfect’ and he [dated] it 3/21/23,” Guarascio stated. “It says his objective was Offensive Participant of the Yr. He labored prefer it day by day.”
Two fundamental areas of focus had been elevated velocity and enhanced endurance so he might carry out higher late in video games. A bulk of every week was devoted to hurry coaching: acceleration drills, sled pulls, chain pulls. Brown competed with speedy Washington Commanders receiver Jahan Dotson, who additionally skilled at FAU, and credited that with serving to him to get him sooner.
“You may inform by the primary exercise I had with him, his need to be nice,” Dotson stated of Brown. “We might do sprints and stuff like that. I might ask Coach Joey, ‘What did A.J. run this morning?’ and would ensure I attempted to beat it. And I am fairly certain he was doing the identical factor.”
Final 12 months, Brown’s high velocity would attain a contact above 22 miles per hour, Guarascio stated, and it elevated to the mid-23s this offseason.
“One mile per hour is the same as three yards of separation,” Guarascio stated. “So should you’re working 23, and I am working 22, you are technically three yards forward of me. So for him to have the ability to acquire separation together with his high velocity, after which for him to realize separation together with his change of course as a result of his velocity and his change course out and in of his breaks has elevated, it is a multiplier.
“After which when he touches the ball, his physicality, his measurement, his power and his energy, that is like Derrick Henry working the ball, you are not taking him down with one particular person.”
Past getting sooner and in higher form, Moorehead seen a refinement in Brown’s route working because the Eagles’ offseason coaching program acquired underway. It has since turn out to be routine to see Brown dominate at observe.
When his day on the NovaCare observe facility is over, Brown typically exchanges his shoulder pads for boxing gloves.
He first related with skilled boxer Stephen Fulton Jr., a former unified bantamweight world champion, when the Eagles requested Fulton to come back in and provides the gamers pointers for a hype video shoot previous to the 2022 season. Brown expressed curiosity in coaching with Fulton, and has been going to an area Philadelphia gymnasium one to 2 instances per week ever since.
“Simply that one-on-one feeling within the ring. No person can save me,” Brown stated. ” I’ve to battle my means out. And it correlates to the sector as a result of I am one-on-one on the again facet, I’ve acquired the perfect nook on the sector. I’ve acquired to win. No person is saving me … It is me and also you. It is ‘mano y mano.’ I’ve acquired to win.”
And Brown stated he is been reaping the advantages of coaching routine as properly.
“Timing, velocity, athleticism, there’s rather a lot that I can proceed to see as a result of he is getting higher. It is coming extra pure,” Fulton stated. “Boxing has probably the greatest exercises there’s in any sport. So for him to be coaching a boxing exercise, I really feel like he will not even get that drained on that subject.”
One Eagles observe efficiency in latest weeks compelled Sirianni to hunt out group CEO Jeffrey Lurie and thank him for the $100 million funding in Brown after the group acquired him from the Titans in a draft day commerce in April 2022.
“No person catches the ball as fairly as A.J. Brown,” Sirianni stated. “No person goes and snags the soccer like him. No person I’ve seen. It is a lot cooler in particular person to see that and when it is somebody in your group. He is on a tear proper now.”
Moorehead stated he did not know which observe Sirianni was referencing — a testomony to Brown sustaining this state of elevated play for months, making a heightened sense of urgency together with the likes of Hurts and Brown’s counterpart, DeVonta Smith.
“It has been a very long time since I’ve seen practices like that. It goes again to my Colt days actually,” stated Moorehead, the previous Indianapolis receiver, “when it was Peyton [Manning] and Marvin [Harrison] and Reggie [Wayne]. These practices, it was like perfection each single day. And if it wasn’t, it was hell to pay for everyone.”
A HEATED SIDELINE dialog between Brown and Hurts was caught on digicam in the course of the Eagles’ Week 2 win over the Minnesota Vikings. It was at first of the fourth quarter, on an evening when Brown was restricted to 4 catches for 29 yards.
An emotional Brown left the stadium that night time with out chatting with reporters. Addressing the second a number of days later, he stated there was not “beefing with Jalen,” that the dialog was a few sequence earlier within the recreation, not goal share. He stated he would not thoughts having uncomfortable conversations with teammates, believing it is his accountability to carry gamers accountable.
Nonetheless, that alternate marked a symbolic turning level. Brown was averaging 5 catches for 54 yards these first two video games. It has since mushroomed to eight catches and 128 yards per recreation.
“They’ve such open line of communication that it was type of over and completed with,” Moorehead stated of Hurts and Brown. “And it targeted everyone up and stated right here, what is the job at hand? It is the following recreation. It is the following rep. Let’s transfer on. They have such an final belief in one another proper now and it has been fairly evident of how they each have performed since then.”
On Oct. 29, towards the Commanders, Brown surpassed 125-plus receiving yards for the sixth consecutive recreation, exploding for eight catches, 130 yards and a pair of scores, together with a one-handed TD seize within the nook of the tip zone that is still one of many high highlights of the NFL season.
Cornerback Darius Slay, who performed with Calvin Johnson in Detroit, likened Brown to Johnson postgame.
“He is catching the whole lot. He ain’t dropping s— so I might maintain throwing to his ass, too.”
Slay was considered one of many teammates who could not assist however gush over Brown within the cramped guests’ locker room at FedEx Discipline.
“I am pleased with him as a pal and as a quarterback,” Hurts stated. “I am proud that he is really invested into profitable and placing the group first and doing no matter he must do in his position to win.”
Brown, although, struck a humble tone as he took to the rostrum, saying the accomplishment did not resonate with him “in any respect” as a result of his work isn’t completed.
Hours after the sport, Guarascio acquired a textual content from Brown.
“Received larger desires and larger objectives,” Brown wrote.
“Only a byproduct of the method,” Guarascio responded. “We have fun after MVPs, Tremendous Bowl MVPs and gold jackets.”
ESPN Washington Commanders reporter John Keim contributed to this story.
