3 players who need to step up for the Eagles with the AJ Brown injury

After the Philadelphia Eagles practiced on Friday, Sept. 13, A.J. Brown popped up on the injury report as a “Limited participant” and we all thought, ‘Well, that’s not good.’ Then on Saturday, he was on the injury report as a “Did Not Participate” and we all thought, ‘Oh, this is actually bad.’ Then on Sunday, the Eagles flat-out said that A.J. was “downgraded to Out with a hamstring injury for Monday night” and we all thought ‘Oh. This is actually terrible.”

Maybe it’s a good thing A.J. is out. It’s early in the season and you don’t want a hamstring thing to linger or turn into something else. Maybe we can trick ourselves into thinking something positive about the Eagles having their incredibly dominant, second-team All-Pro, WR1 sitting out for a game.

The Eagles have an opportunity to show their resiliency after losing a WR1 with the AJ Brown injury

The cool thing about the Eagles is that at least 25 other NFL teams would be absolutely devastated if their WR1 was out. That’s not the case for this team because DeVonta Smith has, can, and will slot into the WR1 spot with stupefying ease. That is equal part unbearably awesome and comforting. 

Unfortunately, it also means other players have to step up. Not just receivers, but also other players on offense and defense. These are those players. 

Jalen Hurts won’t have an ace in the hole

Over the past two years, Jalen Hurts has been able to chunk a deep throw into double or triple coverage and has had a receiver in A.J. Brown who legitimately turns that into a 50-50 ball or better. It’s sick.

DeVonta can definitely be that guy, but he’s not definitely a guy like that. He’s incredibly versatile. He’s an elite route runner. He’s disgustingly resilient. He’s got Inspector Gadget-esque hops. He can play anywhere. He’s a phenomenal WR1 … but he’s not A.J. Brown.

This means Jalen needs to be even more dynamic, precise, and decisive. We know he can be that guy, but last week he wasn’t and in the last game he played without A.J., he wasn’t.

The last time we saw this was the Wild Card round of the playoffs last season. Jalen went 25-of-35 for 250 yards and a touchdown. In that game, DeVonta had 148 yards on eight catches, but the Eagles still only scored once.

No one needs to tell you that this team is different and probably mostly better than the 2022 team given the coaching changes, skill position acquisitions, and defensive upgrades, but that doesn’t stop the reality of recent history.

Chess is a lot harder when you play without a queen. Luckily Jalen has a pawn one square away from the end of the board, but it’s not quite there. DeVonta is going to feast because he’s amazing, but Jalen won’t have his downfield trump card and his hot route target, and that will make his job more difficult. He needs to be great.

Johnny Wilson is the big guy or Britain Covey is the shifty guy

Jahan Dotson is going to need to step up. Duh. It’s who takes the reigns for WR3 that’s more interesting. That should be the 6-foot-6, 230-pound leviathan that is Johnny Wilson. A.J. Brown plays big, and if Kellen Moore calls a play that benefits a gargantuan receiver, Wilson can slide in there. 

Per Next Gen Stats, Johnny was on the field for 10 offensive plays in Week 1, and he ran routes on half of those. He’s been through the entirety of the Eagles offseason programs so that means he knows the offense. It also helps that he’s pretty awesome at blocking.

That’s good stuff. If Johnny wants to be a viable piece of this offense for the long term, having a good performance will go a long way. Luckily for him, the Falcons’ best corner A.J. Terrell will shadow DeVonta more often than not. That means Johnny will draw Mike Hughes or Dee Alford, who are two players you’ve never heard of unless you’re a truly disgusting sicko for subpar defensive backs.

Mike Hughes is 5-foot-10 and 190 pounds and Dee Alford is 5-foot-11 and 180 pounds on a good day. When Johnny is lined up across from them, it’ll not only be a virtually hilarious advantage but also hilarious looking.

If Johnny wants to pop as a rookie, he’s set up for success this week. He’ll have the opportunities to win his reps and flex with his physical abilities. What stinks, is that he was also listed on the injury report with a hamstring as well. 

The Eagles went out and said A.J. was out ahead of the game and didn’t announce Wilson was out. A.J. is obviously a bigger name, so take from that what you will. If Johnny is also out, that means Britain Covey would be the WR3.

If it’s Britain Covey’s time, throw everything about the Eagles WR3’s size in the trash because he’s listed at 5-foot-8 and 175 pounds. That makes for a very slight wide receiver group.

We’ve seen Britain with the ball when he’s returning punts and he’s really good. That being said, there’s a fundamental difference between making players miss when they are in punt coverage and making players miss when they are trying to tackle you after you catch a pass. He’s going to need to channel that energy.

We’ve also seen Brit actually play receiver, but it was very very brief. He’s been targeted just six times; once by Jalen Hurts in Week 16 and five times by Marcus Mariota in Week 18 last season.

Of those six targets, he has four catches, and all of those catches have been successful plays. The two incompletions were thrown by Mariota: One was way too high, and the other one was a touchdown catch but Covey was a hair away from getting two feet in-bounds.

The point is that Brit has the potential to actually be a decent wide receiver. He’s averaged 3.6 yards of separation per target and if he can keep that up it’ll make Jalen’s job a lot easier.

Hopefully, that’s motivation enough for Covey to get that kind of distance from defenders. If he needs anything else, it would be that he doesn’t get smooshed by a 6 foot 2 inch tall and 240 pound Kaden Elliss while running a crosser in the middle of the field. It’d probably be pretty cool if he didn’t get his relatively small bones mushed into soup.

The linebackers need to back the line

It’s much easier for linebackers to play downhill than it is for them to play in coverage and that’s because consistently covering NFL pass catchers in 2024 is one of the hardest things to do in all of sports. 

Fortunately, the Falcons’ quarterback Kirk Cousin is 36 years old, coming off an Achilles injury, apparently can’t throw a ball more than 20 yards downfield, and is averaging a time to throw of 2.55 seconds.

That means it will hopefully be a quick passing game and the linebackers won’t get stressed with covering receivers for a long time or covering them downfield. If that’s the case, Zack Baun and Nakobe Dean shouldn’t have too many issues.

Their biggest test will be metaphorically and literally tackling Bijan Robinson, the Falcons' really really good running back. When you’re looking at stopping the run, having Jordan Davis and Jalen Carter on your defensive line is a good place to start, but Bijan has the talent to get past those guys. 

If that’s the case, the linebackers are going to need to make sure they are stalwarts on early-down runs. If these guys can step up in this game on those downs, it will force a physically weak Cousins to make a play on third downs. That’s what we want. 

When that’s the case, the defense will be successful. If the defense is successful, it’ll make a strong passing game less of a necessity. If the need for a strong passing game is less severe, then the chances are that Saquon Barkley will be able to have a repeat performance of Week 1. Bada bing, bada boom. Problem solved. 

When a team has as many star players as the Eagles have on offense, losing one stinks but that opens opportunities for the other guys to go off. 

The Falcons aren’t as daunting now as they looked a couple of weeks ago, so this little bit of early adversity could be helpful. It’ll tell us what this Eagles team is made of. Week 2 will go a long way in making fans feel more comfortable that there won’t be some kind of gutwrenching and horrifying collapse as soon as things go wrong down the stretch … you know … again.