Mandatory Credit: Bill Streicher-Imagn Images

Shots Fired – Brian Daboll Takes Sly Dig at Eagles with ‘A.J. Brown Open a Lot’ Statement

The Eagles limited passing game has become an issue of late

Mandatory Credit: Bill Streicher-Imagn Images

The Philadelphia Eagles are 4-1 on the season, and yet despite their record, three of the top offensive players on the roster felt the need to hold a ‘players only’ meeting after their week 5 loss to the Denver Broncos.

Despite their impressive start to the season, the Eagles’ offense has looked lackluster. Part of the reason is Saquon Barkley’s ineffectiveness in the backfield this season. Last season was a once-in-a-career type of year for Barkley as he rushed for over 2,000 yards.

But, even if Barkley isn’t on top of his game, the Eagles still have arguably the best wide-receiver duo in the league in A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith. That is exactly what Giants’ head coach Brian Daboll spoke about in his press conference ahead of their week 6 matchup.

Jalen Hurts, A.J. Brown and Saquon Barkley reportedly had a meeting this week.

Now the Eagles are wearing the uniforms that Hurts asked the team to start wearing in 2021.

Things are trending in the right direction. 👀 pic.twitter.com/bsnNBj9WcJ
— Anthony DiBona (@DiBonaNFL) October 7, 2025

Daboll Adds Wood to a Burning Fire

Speaking highly about the Eagles’ overall talent on the offensive side of the ball, Brian Daboll threw some shade on Philadelphia just days ahead of their rivalry encounter.

Daboll had nothing but praise for the Eagles’ offense as he alluded to Barkley, Brown, and Smith as explosive weapons. If the Eagles choose to hand the ball to Barkley, he has the ability to be highly productive, but at the same time, Philly can choose to throw the ball to A.J. Brown or DeVonta Smith.

Daboll described Brown as a big, strong, fast wide receiver with the ability to get open, who has good hands, and can run any route you want him to run, so they can throw it to him as many times as they want.

The Giants’ coach, who had previously referred to watching all the games and as much tape as you can, also mentioned at the end that ‘A.J. Brown is open a lot.’ This last part of his media interaction is the main point that has been a cause of concern for the Eagles.

“You watch the tape … AJ (Brown) is open a lot” – #Giants HC Brian Daboll on #Eagles wideout.

There’s been a lot of talk in Philly about his usage, targets this year pic.twitter.com/LSFnIDwnRt
— Connor Hughes (@Connor_J_Hughes) October 7, 2025

A.J. Brown’s Lack of Targets in Philadelphia

Going back a couple of seasons, and especially last season, with Barkley doing most of the work with his run game, the passing game has taken a hit. Brown has shown his frustration at times, and more recently, it seems that the players’ only meeting held between Jalen Hurts, Barkley, and Brown was to address this growing pain.

What we can see from the outside is that Hurts has been reluctant to throw the ball to Brown. Now, whether there are some personal issues between the two is not clear. But the fact of the matter is that Brown so far this season has had only 1 game with double-digit targets, and that is the only game he crossed 100 receiving yards.

The #Eagles core four of A.J. Brown, DeVonta Smith, Dallas Goedert, and Jahan Dotson, have a combined Drop Rate of 0%.

They should probably keep getting the ball. pic.twitter.com/8WOQ1Znr5B
— James Simone (@JamesSimoneNFL) October 7, 2025

In fact, in the other 4 games, Brown has just 8, 27, 7, and 43 receiving yards for a grand total of only 86 receiving yards. Clearly, there seems to be some problem, and according to experts, much of that has to do with Jalen Hurts and his reluctance to add or change anything on the offensive side of the ball.

The Eagles may be 4-1 to start the season, but it may not account for anything if they don’t figure out a way to work together on that side of the ball. If frustration continues to grow, it may not come as a total shock to see the Philadelphia Eagles self-implode a few weeks down the line.

Mandatory Credit: Bill Streicher-Imagn Images

A.J. Brown

Brian Daboll

Jalen Hurts

New York Giants

NFL

Philadelphia Eagles

Saquon Barkley

Devavrat Kulkarni

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I am a content writer for the NFL team, and joined The Playoffs after working with Sportskeeda and NFL Analysis as an NFL writer. After starting my professional career as a French-to-English translator, working as a content writer is a new adventure for me. I started out in the sports media field for two main reasons: my love for sports in general, especially the NFL, NBA, and Tennis, as well as my passion for writing. The best part of this job is that I get to write a variety of pieces with the freedom to explore content from various angles. It also enables me to stay up to date with the sporting world, which otherwise can be difficult to do in the day-to-day grind. In a world full of chaos, sports unite and entertain like nothing else!