As the most deliberate superstar in sports, Jalen Hurts does not weigh in on Eagles personnel decisions. Many a franchise quarterback offer this kind of impact or aspire to help shape the rosters around them. Hurts trusts his general manager, Howie Roseman, and that trust is implicit. But Hurts also broke his own rule once, before the 2022 NFL draft. And his decision, this rare break from the ironclad rules he established and lives by, changed far more than just the trajectory of his career.
Hurts’s welcomed input that spring helped the Eagles land his close friend and kindred spirit, a large-framed, fleet-footed, sure-handed receiver who had excelled in college at Ole Miss and in the pros with the Titans. Hurts understood that A.J. Brown wanted to escape Tennessee, after injuries (to him, not a ton), amid what appeared to be an impending decline (for the franchise overall). They even joked, these friends since they were teenagers, about fashioning a reunion of sorts, one that would unfold, fittingly, in the city of Brotherly Love.
Brown and Hurts are like brothers. Remove the “like” even. Their connection—and shared office space—ranks among the primary factors in the Eagles’ dominance since last season kicked off. Philly wouldn’t have reached the Super Bowl without them and wouldn’t be a league-leading 8–1 this season without them. Proof was stamped by one six-game stretch for Brown, dominance obvious from receiving yardage totals alone in Week 3 through Week 8: 131-175-127-131-137-130. To call that stretch elite, for either of them but Brown especially, undersells. (And Brown added seven receptions for 66 yards and another score, his sixth, in Week 9’s win over the Cowboys.)
