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It’s not often a good thing to be compared to a lightning rod player with off-field controversies who ranks 41st in franchise history in receiving. But Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver A.J. Brown will probably be happy to be compared to former Eagles star Terrell Owens, at least as far as on-field performance goes.
After Brown put up a monster performance against a Tennessee Titans team that traded him last offseason, with eight catches for 119 yards and two touchdowns, a current NFC personnel executive made the comparison to Heavy NFL insider Matt Lombardo.
“He’s really similar to Terrrell Owens,” the executive said. “He’s bigger, but just not quite as fast.”
Terrell Owens was listed at 6-foot-3 and 224 pounds, while Brown plays at 6-foot-1 and 226 pounds. So T.O. had the height advantage, but Brown has a stronger build given his weight-to-height ratio. Give Owens the slight edge in speed, sure, but to watch Brown play is certainly reminiscent of watching Owens in his prime, even if he spent only two seasons in Philadelphia.
Brown, 25, has 61 catches for 950 yards and 9 touchdowns through 12 games this season, putting him on pace for 86 catches for 1,346 yards and 13 touchdowns. He’s averaged 79.2 yards per game, while catching 63.5% of balls thrown his way.
At Brown’s age, Owens caught 67 passes for 1,097 yards and 14 touchdowns for the 49ers, hauling in 64.4% of the passes thrown his way. Owens’ best season came a few years later, with 97 receptions for 1,451 yards and 13 scores in 2000 when he was 27.
The Eagles would certainly be thrilled if Brown’s career trajectory resembles Owens’, and that seems perfectly reasonable.
Personnel Exec: A.J. Brown ‘Has it All’
One of the impressive things about Brown has been his ability to do it all this season. When teams have taken away the deep ball, he’s hurt them in the short and intermediate game. When they’ve played tighter coverage, he’s beaten them deep. He’s manhandled corners who have tried to challenge him physically, and he’s out-jumped and better-positioned himself against those who have tried to run with him stride for stride.
“A.J. really has it all,” the personnel executive told Lombardo. “Competitiveness, the size you want, strength, and elite ball skills.”
There’s no better example of having it all than the back-to-back plays against the Titlans in which Brown scored an (almost) 41-yard touchdown, then actually did score one.
On the first play, he made a leaping touchdown grab and toe-tapped the sideline to get his feet in while displaying those elite ball skills. But it turned out he didn’t quite get both feet in.
No problem for Brown. He showed off his physicality on the next play for the 41-yard score, planting a defender on his backside en route to being wide open.
The only question is whether the Brown-Owens comparison holds up off the field.
A.J. Brown Has Gotten Off-Field Criticism, But Is It Warranted?
Part of the reason that the Eagles were able to acquire Brown for a relative song was that he was threatening to hold out from the Titans’ offseason program in order to get a raise.
When Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio covered the story in April, he noted that NFL players have a limited window in which to make money and shouldn’t be faulted for doing what they need to do to maximize their earnings in what tends to be a short career.
That’s a point Philadelphia fans should certainly understand. After all, it was Rocky Balboa who said, “Now if you know what you’re worth, then go out and get what you’re worth!”
Besides, it’s not like Brown was doing sit-ups in his driveway, nor has he complained in the weeks when DeVonta Smith got more balls thrown his way. After taking some heat for appearing to give less than full effort on a play, Brown owned the mistake and explained himself.
Brown plays with some swagger and emotion that’s brought energy rather than negativity. It appears the Eagles got their 2022 version of Terrell Owens on the field with a solid attitude off the field.
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