A.J. Brown on Eagles firing Brian Johnson: "Somebody has to be the bad guy"
Eagles wide receiver A.J. Brown was not surprised when offensive coordinator Brian Johnson was fired after a disappointing ending to the season.
Brown told Rob Maaddi of the Associated Press that when a team falls short of expectations in the NFL, “somebody has to be the bad guy.”
Ultimately, Brown said, the Eagles' offensive success will come down not to the offensive coordinator but to the players.
"It comes down to players executing and making plays,” Brown said.
Brown had a solid season in 2023, starting all 17 games, catching a career-high 106 passes and gaining 1,456 receiving yards with seven touchdowns. But there was talk in Philadelphia that he wasn't seeing eye-to-eye with the coaching staff. And an offense that can better take advantage of Brown's talents would go a long way toward the Eagles looking more like the team from 2022 and the first half of 2023 than like the team that struggled down the stretch and made a quick exit from the playoffs.
