During a Monday appearance on Philadelphia sports radio station 94WIP, Philadelphia Eagles veteran defensive end Brandon Graham suggested there were lingering issues between Eagles wide receiver A.J. Brown and quarterback Jalen Hurts.
Graham later walked back those comments while speaking with Tim McManus of ESPN.
“I made a mistake and I assumed that it was something that it wasn’t,” Graham told McManus. “I just want to win so bad that I don’t just want to use the media when we need to talk about something and we can fix the problem ourselves. I didn’t add to it in a good light, so that’s my bad. I just assumed, and it made me out to look even worse because I had it all wrong and now people are going to run with that part. I really just want to win, man, and I want brothers to be able to just hash it out.”
The latest Eagles-related drama began when Brown seemed to criticize Philadelphia’s passing game following the club’s 22-16 win over the Carolina Panthers that improved the NFC East side to 11-2 on the season. Specifically, Brown said the Eagles must improve “passing” and that “there’s not too much conversation” between he and Hurts during games as it pertains to finding fixes whenever the offense struggles.
After the Tennessee Titans traded Brown to Philadelphia in the spring of 2022, he referred to Hurts as his “best friend.” However, Graham said during the 94WIP segment that the two “were friends before this, but things have changed.” Graham added that “we have to make sure the personal doesn’t get in the way of the business” as the Eagles pursue a second trip to the Super Bowl in three seasons.
On Monday night, Graham told McManus he would apologize to both Brown and Hurts.
“I wasn’t trying to be divisive. I just didn’t want us to use the media in a bad way,” Graham told McManus. “And that starts with me too. I can’t do that, either. If I’ve got something, I’ve got to go to the people too, instead of just feeding it like I did.”
Questions about Hurts’ leadership style and personality arose following the Eagles’ epic collapse during the second half of the 2023 campaign, and it was subsequently reported that the club dealt with “a problem that would splinter any group of men.” Multiple stories from this past summer then claimed that Hurts’ relationship with head coach Nick Sirianni deteriorated last season.
One couldn’t have blamed outsiders for believing everybody involved was now on the same page considering the Eagles won 11 of their 13 games this season. It now seems that might not be the case.
Eagles players and coaches will have to put such potential distractions behind them as they prepare to face the 10-3 Pittsburgh Steelers at Philadelphia’s Lincoln Financial Field this coming Sunday. As of Tuesday morning, DraftKings Sportsbook listed the Eagles as 4.5-point favorites for that matchup.
